The Burdens We Carry
by Chewie
Summary: Shinji and Asuka, having survived 3rd Impact, must help to rebuild society from the remains of mankind, all the while shaking off the demons that they have had haunting them for so long. Each chapter will be headed by a diary entry from one of the two.
1. Not Responsible

Revised

Ver 1.2 (23 Dec 08)

**Not Responsible**

Diary,

I know I have not written in you for a while now, and I'm sorry. Things are moving pretty quickly now, and I haven't really had much time. We finally managed to fill out the last of the menial type jobs the other day. Trying to get people to volunteer for those jobs was kind of hard though. Most of them didn't decide to come back just so they could hold a tedious job.

Asuka was at the meeting. She was looking more beautiful than I had ever seen her. She looked at me a few times, but we didn't talk. She has been busy doing her thing, and I guess I have been busy doing mine. It's kind of odd for her to attend meetings. I guess I got so used to her being gone at the Facility all day.

How in the world did it all come to this? How did we come from the brink of annihilation to a city of 4000 people? And how did I ever become a public official? That's kind of weird, don't you think? I never was good at organizing people before. Then of course, I was never really in that position. Maybe it's genetic. Father was good at this. I hope I didn't inherit anything else from him.

Lately I've been a bit depressed, and I think it has to do with Asuka. She is one of the first things on my mind in the mornings, much to my embarrassment, and her face is the last thing I see when I lie down at night… She wrecks me, but I still haven't been able to tell her how I feel.

I passed close by her at the meeting. God, she smells good.

When I first woke up on the beach, I thought for sure that I would be alone for the rest of my life. But Asuka was there. And then, so was Hadased. And Kensuke, Yevgenia, and Will. Only 6 months. I don't think a half a year has ever passed so quickly.

Shinji

* * *

Asuka watched Shinji through her un-bandaged eye. The sight of him crying was nearly more than she could bear. Whether anger or pity she did not know. That was something to sort out later perhaps. She couldn't really blame him; with all that he had gone through and seen even the most stalwart could break down.

Shinji's shoulders heaved, trying to expel the hurt and sorrow that he felt through his tears. He held his hands over his face, trying to hide from Asuka, then partially fell to the sand to her side, unconscious. Having seen the culling of all of the humans on Earth, and the subsequent unraveling of his reality, he had been propelled to the brink of his sanity. And then he woke up. In the end, the mind could only take so much.

"Get the hell off of me, Third Child!" Asuka pushed him off of her, and rolled him onto his back with her good arm. The tears still streaked down his face, but no longer was it twisted in grief. He looked calm, asleep. Whether he was unconscious or awake she did not know, nor did it really make much difference.

Asuka looked down at the boy, scowling. Why was he here? Why was she here, for that matter. And where the hell is this, she wondered. The blank stretch of beach went for as far as she could see in both directions. The hideous broken face of Rei Ayanami loomed out of the ocean on the horizon, wide eyes staring through her..

Shinji stirred, his mental exhaustion from the events of the last day receding with some sub conscious levels of understanding taking root. He was alive. He was in reality, and he was not alone. However, along with this came the burden of responsibility. He, and he alone, was responsible for allowing reality to remain reality, not just for himself, but for Asuka and who knows how many other people. Would that make him savior of the world? Or had he in fact doomed them all to the loneliness and pain that was life. The events of the past day were a lot to absorb, and perhaps the best way to deal with them would be to just not think about them.

As a boy just coming into manhood, it was inconceivably difficult for him to take responsibility for the entire world. The struggle within him finally subsided as he fell back into the comfort of apathy. But apathy was like running away. Shinji was tired of running. He seemed to hurt people no matter what he did. Best just to not think about it at all, right?

Asuka stood with some difficulty, and after a brief bout with vertigo, she turned around and tried getting her bearings. There was a wooded area not far from them, but it did not help tell her where she was.

Unwilling to leave Shinji alone, she sat back down. Her plug suit had long since run out of power, and with the LCL in her hair, she really felt gross. As soon as they… rather, she could manage, she needed to wash it.

* * *

Some time later, Shinji stirred next to her, turning on his side, and curled up some. She looked disdainfully down at him. Maybe a threat would bring him out of it.

"Shinji, get up! Don't make me kick your ass." She smacked him lightly with the back of her hand. She "hmmph"ed him resignedly and sat watching the waves lapping at the sand with brows furrowed in frustration. What would they do now? Was there anyone left? How would they live? Would they live?

A few minutes went by and Shinji interrupted her thoughts without moving from his spot.

"Asuka?"

"Yeah, what is it?" She answered, frustrated with his need for acknowledgement.

Silence for a few seconds, and then very quietly, "I'm sorry if you're angry that you are back here." His eyes were open once again, but they were clear. He studied the sand intently trying not to meet her gaze.

"Why?", she almost yelled. Then in the far off tone that belied the enormity of the question, "Why didn't you let me die? You could have just let me die. You could have been rid of me for good." She glared at him, then sighed and looked back at the water. "My mother was there, and I wanted to live, and when she was gone, I wanted to die. I **wanted** to."

"I'm sorry Asuka. I didn't mean to." Shinji sat up and scooted further from her. He could almost feel the angry heat coming off of her.

"Come on, Third Idiot. I am tired of sitting here on this stupid beach." Asuka stood up and started marching off in the direction of the woods. She was curious about the lack of pain in her eye and arm, but wanted some privacy before exploring the issue.

"Where are you going?" Shinji asked standing up. The sand of the beach had invaded his clothes. It was abrasive against his skin, especially in his socks.

"I'm gonna find some civilization. I want to get out of this thing, and wash my hair, and eat something and go to sleep" she said indicating her plug suit.

Shinji's stomach rumbled in agreement.

The woods went on for a while, but then they came to a highway. It was empty and looked little used or maybe just really new. Regardless there was a large sign nearby. Coming around to the other side, they found that it was in Chinese and had a smaller English translation on it. Jen-Shan 20 Km and Hong Kong 125Km it said letters that looked like they were pealing off.

"Hmm. That figures. China. And neither of us know Chinese." Asuka looked around disgustedly.

"I - I know a little. I am not very good though."

"Yeah yeah yeah. I know, here you are to save the day, oh 'But I am no good'. God, Shinji, you know, you really do piss me off!" Asuka started walking toward the outskirts of Hong Kong, her plug suit creaking at the joints. The pads of the feet were already starting wear away. Most likely in a few miles, it would be worn through and she would be on bare feet. Plug suits were not really designed to endure much wear and tear.

Shinji trotted to catch up. Asuka was walking pretty fast, and not showing any intention of slowing for his sake. After a few minutes they rounded a corner and the woods came to an end. A housing development had been steadily encroaching on the wooded area. At first it was just foundations, those gave way to half completed houses, and then turned into houses that had just been recently completed, all laid out in nice exact grids. Occasional breaks marked schools, clinics, small commercial areas, and emergency services like fire and police. On the far side of this new housing development, a large highway from many tributary roads lead to a very large squat structure on the horizon.

Maybe a kilometer down the road the green of vegetation resumed abruptly signifying that area had been completed for some time, and likely had people living there. All around them, however, it was quiet. Even more than quiet, it was silent. Nothing moved. No noises. For a couple of teens that had been surrounded by the bustle of day-to-day life in a city their entire lives, it was disconcerting. No cars moved, no people to be seen, no noise.

"What the hell is this?" Asuka looked around puzzled.

"Uhhm. Everybody is gone, Asuka. For now at least."

Asuka looked at Shinji warily, asking "What do you mean by that?"

Shinji was silent. His brow was furrowed and she could see that he did not intend on answering her question.

Asuka scowled then looked around. The sun had come out a minute or two before, and it was really hot. Red and black where not exactly cool colors either. "Well then they won't miss it if I get some clothes." Asuka looked back at the boy. He was lost in thought, likely related to his last comment. She took his wrist, and half dragged him with her. "Come on, Shinji."

The first two houses that they broke into must have belonged to older people. They were both furnished with antique furniture and old-ish clothes. The third had belonged to a family that had several children.

Asuka thumbed through the clothes in the girl's dresser, and grumbled. She selected several garments and went to the bathroom to bathe and change. All of the electricity was off, but there was still running water.

Shinji waited downstairs. His own LCL soaked clothes had started stinking with the addition of sweat and heat. He had some clothes he had taken from the boy's room. The house was nice, there was carpet on the floor and it was nicely furnished with conservative furniture. Pictures of the family hung on the wall.

Now that she was alone in the bathroom, Asuka took a moment to remove the bandage on her eye that had largely been disregarded by Shinji, probably because he knew that if he said something about it, she would hurt him. The skin underneath was puffy and a little painful, but otherwise unbroken. She could see through the eye too, even if it was a little blurry from being covered. That made her wonder.

She took the fold of bandage that was tucked at the top of the wrap on her arm, and started unraveling it too. Like the eye, the skin of her arm was smooth and did not even show a scar from where she could have sworn it had been bisected lengthwise when she was fighting.

* * *

Every now and then the house would pop a little as it heated in the sun. Upstairs Shinji heard the water run for a minute or two and then stop. With the quiet that pervaded the house, he was allowed a chance to really think about things.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he had been going over the events of the last day, more about the actual mechanics of it, and not so much the importance. It had all been so surreal, and yet the things that he had seen had really happened. Deep in his chest he felt the loneliness that he had become accustomed to most of his life. But it was worse. He had felt minds brush past his while he was still in Unit 01. Watching through the eyes of the beast that his mother had held sway over for so long. The whirlpool of souls circling inexorably toward their huge melting pot. He had felt them. Hundreds, thousands, millions, who knew how many. And then they had gone away.

"Hey, jackass, wake up. It's your turn!" Asuka nearly yelled right in front of Shinji.

"S-sorry." Quickly Shinji bolted upstairs. It was dark in the bathroom, and he hoped that the clothes he picked out landed on the sink counter rather than falling off onto the floor or the toilet. He disrobed and jumped into the shower to wash off the traces of LCL.

Asuka was back upstairs again looking at herself in the mirror. The clothes she had picked out did not really fit her well. In fact there were a couple sizes too small. Maybe they should have gone to a house further down. Oh well, she supposed a horizontally striped red and white shirt that made her boobs look huge and a pair of red shorts that were a little on the "too-short" side would have to do until they found something better.

As she left the room she saw Shinji exit the bathroom. His clothes were of slightly better taste she supposed. He wore a blue shirt that said "Time to make the Doughnuts" in very faded English letters, and a pair of blue jeans. It almost made him look like a regular kid. Except for the tired look in him. She had seen that look before. Sometimes he looked like the oldest man alive. Well, of course now he is the oldest man alive, at least so far as she knew.

He had seen things that were not for people's eyes, and he had witnessed atrocities, that would scar him forever. And if they did not, they would at least remain in his memory that long. He heaved a great sigh, and looked up and saw her. His face brightened a little for a moment.

"Hey! Are you looking at my breasts!"

"What? No!" Of course now he was. There is no easier way to get someone to do something than by asking if they are doing it.

Asuka smiled inwardly, but she berated Shinji, falling into the comfortable and familiar old routine they had always followed. Asuka accuses, Shinji denies, Asuka considers, Shinji grows a small spine and counter accuses, and so on. It felt good. It was almost like it used to be. But there was no one to share it with. The other Two Stooges were not here, and even though she hated them too, they did give depth to the "conversation". And Hikari. Hikari had been one of the only girls who would talk to her. Everyone else was too stuck up to deal with Asuka.

As they left the house, the argument raged on. "Shinji, just admit it, you were locked on and you didn't even see me. Hell, I bet you didn't even notice the color of the shirt. Only the shape."

"Ha! Shows what you know! It's red!" This only after looking to make sure.

Asuka's stomach rumbled rather loudly, and that stopped them short.

"Ugh. Man, I need food. I haven't had anything since…" She looked sideways at Shinji. "Since… I was admitted to the hospital." She turned a little from him. She hated having been put in there. Though, it was her own fault. Still that was a very weak and vulnerable position.

Sensing a sudden drop in temperature immediately around him, Shinji decided that they could check out a convenience store that he thought he had seen on their way down the road and voiced the plan to Asuka. He also noticed the absence of the bandages, and the fairness and smoothness of the skin on her arm.

"Uhhm …" Shinji started, then thought better of it.

"What? What is it, Shinji?" Asuka started in her most exasperated tone.

"Nothing." Shinji led the way to the store. On the way they saw a car that had crashed into a now downed electrical pole. The power lines were jumping on the ground spitting out hisses of electrical power like snakes writhing in a pit.

Shinji looked pointedly at Asuka, then back at the car and power lines. And as he looked close this time he realized something was draped over the steering wheel. They crept a little close, and it turned out to be the arm of a dress shirt. It was stained with the sickly yellow color and disgusting smell of LCL.

"Umm, Shinji. Just… just leave it alone." Not only did Asuka just want to get something to eat, but there was also something a little creepy about the liquid remains in the car. Something was weird when you thought about the fact that this liquid is what you were made of, and that the stuff in the car used to be a person.

Across the street was the small convenience store. The front doors stood open for a moment, they tried to close. They were partially blocked by a pile of clothes, and when they closed on them, the doors opened again. Fortunately there was a regular door off to the side. Asuka did not really feel like stepping over that "person" either.

The air-conditioning inside beckoned to them. Inside they found that it was a little better stocked for real eating than many other convenience stores were. In addition to snacks there were some fruits and vegetables and processed meats and such. Asuka headed immediately for the drink cooler, while Shinji headed for the little deli that was set up. There was no telling how long some of the stuff had been out. But they had a pretty good selection which had hams and pepperoni. So tasting the meats first and finding them acceptable, he made a couple of sandwiches.

Asuka was already sitting outside, so he went out to join her. She had a package of candy called "Mouth Joltz" and a soda. He offered her a sandwich and she declined at high volume. He also found that she had not gotten him a drink. Perhaps he should have not just expected her to get him one. After retrieving a drink for himself, he returned and sat on the curb a few feet away.

The sandwich was pretty good, but it needed a little more spice to it. None of the condiments inside where enough. Asuka's candy had her feeling sick a few minutes later. Just because it tasted good, she could not hope to get the nourishment she needed from candy, especially on an empty stomach.

" Helloooooooooo !"

Startled, Shinji nearly choked. Someone off in the distance was calling out. Shinji recognized it as English, but it was with a heavy accent that he did not know.

"Helloooooooooo ! Iss derrr anyone around?"

Jumping up quickly, they both peeked around the corner of the building. Walking up the road, they saw him. He was nearly 2 meters tall, and very skinny with a dark complexion.

"Delag solghergay ! Wudaregha serdaneen !"

"What is he saying?" Shinji looked back at Asuka.

"What are you asking me for! I don't know!" Asuka glared at Shinji in her best "You are so stupid" look. It had taken a long time to perfect that look.

"Shhh. Be quiet, Asuka. He'll hear us." They both turned back to see the man. He had what looked like a bed sheet wrapped about his waist, like he had found it somewhere to cover himself. And then he saw them. Really only their heads, since they were peeking.

He started walking quickly towards them, a smile on his face, waving his arms and calling to them.

"Hey! You! Can you help me! Wherrrre is everyone?", he cried in somewhat broken English.

Shinji thought a moment about running, but they would not be able to outrun him. Besides he looked friendly enough. Finally when the man was only about 50 meters away, he spoke up. It came out a little mixed up, while he tried to remember the weird subject verb arrangement of English.

"Umm. Alone… are we, around is no one." Asuka pushed him out of the way.

"No stupid, subject first then verb then object." Then she turned to the man. "Everyone is gone. You are the first person we have seen."

"What has happened?" The distressed look in his eyes was difficult to miss, and his excitement made him more difficult to understand.

Asuka looked at Shinji, who just shrugged. Go on and tell him if you think you can put it into words. "Well, I assume you have heard about the Angels?"

The story took so long that they had raided the convenience store again. This time Shinji had put the meats and cheeses and other perishables in the cooler. If it stayed on long enough, they could make good use of that food.

Presently they were outside the store, sitting at a table in a corner of the parking lot, which was empty. The sun was quietly abandoning them, and it would only be about an hour or two before it was gone fully.

"And so far as I understand, this Lillith… thing caused everyone's AT Field to dissipate, and everyone's soul was released." She looked at Shinji for a second. "Initially we thought maybe we were the last, but with you here, maybe anyone can come back to reality.. I guess some people would choose to stay. You know it all sounds really dumb when you try to say it, doesn't it?" She raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

Shinji and the man, Hadased, nodded, one agreeing, the other absorbing. According to Hadased, he came from Bahrain. He had been just getting up to open his store, and then it happened. He had come to in the water, which he now knew to be the South China Sea. He had been resting in the sand with the water at about neck level, and to his distress, he was naked. Now he sat in a short sleeve shirt and shorts that he had gotten from another nearby house.

"So, why was God so angry with us that he would have send these… Angels? What had we did to deserve such punishment?" Hadased asked.

"I'm not sure. Seems like I overheard someone at NERV saying it was because we had started meddling in genetics where we weren't supposed to, after we finished mapping the Human Genome. But who knows."

Shinji looked down at his watch, then at the descending sun. "You know, we ought to find someplace to stay. It's going to be night soon." Shinji realized he said it in English, and supposed that with practice he was getting a bit better.

"What if there are more?" Hadased inquired, looking around.

"More what? People who come?" Asuka thought for a minute. "We could make a beacon or something. Like a radio playing music loud or something like that."

"How about a bright light at night. I don't want to be up all night listening to music." Shinji said throwing their trash away.

"Dat is not a bad idea. But where will we sleep?"

"Yeah I don't want to sleep in someone else's bed." Asuka was more repulsed by the idea of dead humans than she was of dead Angels. "We could just get some blankets and stuff and sleep in someone's living room." It was not really a suggestion; it sounded more like a set plan.

* * *

That night, the first night of the new era, they slept in a nearby house, laying out on the floor of the living room. Outside, a light shone up into the air, casting a long white streak into the dark blue sky. The red splash of blood on the moon and arcing through space still caught light and shone brilliantly also.

Shinji and Asuka both had nightmares. Hadased slept soundly enough, of course he had not recently experience the traumatic events that the two children had.

In Shinji's dream he was confronted by an endless stream of people none of whom he knew. They accused him of making the wrong decision. Of choosing for them. He tried to explain that they really had a choice. He had given them a choice. He had given everyone, even Asuka, a choice, and they chose for themselves.

In Asuka's dream she was walking alone in a city full of people. She did not see any danger, but she felt it; there was pain too. It was getting closer. Then her mother stepped out of the crowd and took her hand. Together they pushed past everyone in the city and ran for the country side. But her mother wanted go even further, and pulled at Asuka to come with her. She looked back at her daughter and smiled.

It was not a smile of regret or malice. She saw that Asuka wanted to go back to the city. Back to the people and the danger and the pain. She was sad that Asuka would not come with her, but she loved her with that smile. Asuka left her mother there, on her way to the country, and returned to the city, and just as she woke up, she saw Shinji. "Shinji!"

"I didn't do it. I am not responsible." Shinji lapsed into silence, moving back into a deeper sleep. Asuka saw that his cheeks were damp like he had been crying in his sleep.

Touching her own cheek she found that she had too. The pain of the loss of her mother this second time was still there. She had wanted to be with her so much. And then she was gone again. Sighing, Asuka turned over and tried to go back to sleep. The clock radio they had brought into the living room of this house said it was 04:00. It would be light in a little while. Another day in another world. A new world. Maybe they could fix things where they went wrong before.

With thoughts like those it was easy to find sleep. It stole over her before she knew it, and this time it was restful. Outside, a half mile away, a girl and a boy still unknown to each other were both making their way to the light that streaked across the sky.


	2. Will

January 14, 2017

Dear Diary,

Yeah it's me again. Yesterday I told you that we were convening a committee to appoint heads and ask for volunteers for some of the more school jobs. Today I was walking through the community building and I saw Shinji looking at plans for some kind of building with some other men. He is taller now. And more muscular. I think this may be the most he has worked before, but I guess I can understand that. I didn't do much physical work when I was younger.

I also heard his voice. It is eerily reminiscent of his fathers, but he doesn't have the hard edge that Commander Ikari had. Oh what the hell are you doing, Asuka? Are you going to swoon on the Incredible Shinji? You going to go ask him to make little babies with you?

(Severely crossed out portion omitted)

Anyhow, things at the NERV complex are looking up. While I can't say that I really like Kensuke, he has proven invaluable in bringing the MAGI computers back up to an operational level. There is still the lockdown program in place, but he is chipping away at it. Now if he can just stop staring at me. I mean he has Genie's breasts to watch, why does he have to watch mine too? Ewww… it creeps me out. One of these days I am going to smack the shit out of him.

Anyhow, he assures me that it will only be a few more days before it is all running right again. Hopefully we can make this society happen. Maybe we can keep from screwing it all up like we did the last time. And by that I mean humans. I didn't screw it up.

Sigh I am going to be very interested to find out what all Shinji has been up to at the meeting. He keeps away from me a lot now, but after I told him off the last time I guess I can't really blame him. But, I have to go now. I have a meeting with the fusion plant people in a while and I want to grab a bite to eat before seeing them.

* * *

Kensuke watched from around the corner of a nearby house as the girl approached the home with the floodlight spilling its light into the sky. She was dressed in somewhat badly chosen colors with mismatched shoes. But he was not much better off.

Presently she padded across the green lawn and up the steps. There were a few lights on inside, but so far as he could see nothing moved inside. Not surprising considering it was something like 5 AM. Everyone would likely be asleep.

It had taken him hours to get here. When he woke up, he was washed up on the beach, naked. It scared the hell out of him, because the last really coherent thing he remembered was watching the news about Tokyo-3 and then it cut off. Not long after that an earthquake or something and then… a dream? Shinji was there, and so was Rei. He did not see them though. He just sort of knew they were there. And a whole lot of other people were around him. He could hear them but could not see them. And it was not like he would hear them in front of himself or to the side. It was like listening to yourself talk with someone else's voice.

After leaving the beach he found that the streets of the city were deserted. It was a good thing too because he was quite exposed. The marina that he woke up next to was near a housing development and after ringing doorbells and knocking on several houses trying to rouse someone for help, he just hauled off and broke into one and raided someone's closet. He left a note with his name and an apology and his new address in Fukuoka. Hopefully they would not be too mad at him. When he left the house, that was when he saw the light. It was the only thing like it that he could see, and something told him that he should check it out.

The girl gingerly rang the doorbell which gave off a simple two note ding-dong. The girl looked in to see what was happening. Shadows in the house moved around and the door opened.

Kensuke nearly fell down. Shinji was standing there with Asuka! He could not hear what he was saying, but the girl smiled and Asuka motioned for her to come inside. He broke into a run crossing the yard of the house he was at and the next one in only a few seconds.

"Shinji! Shinji! It's me!"

Both Shinji and Asuka were caught well off guard, but Asuka recovered quickly enough.

"Oh, shit." She said under her breath.

"Oh, man, Shinji! What're you doing here? What's going on? Where is everybody? Is Touji around too?" It almost came out as one long question, and it took a moment for Shinji to really separate words and determine what he said. Meanwhile the girl was looking around warily, eyes wide, wondering if anyone else would run out of the shadows. A man moved around in the kitchen, clearing his throat, but she could not see him.

"Well, uhhm. Why don't you come in and we can talk about it? There is a lot to it." Shinji motioned him inside, and stuck his head back out the door to make sure there were no more people coming. When he was satisfied, he closed the door and joined Asuka who was ushering the girl, and, grudgingly, Kensuke into the kitchen. Hadased had made some quick snacks out of stuff he found in the pantry earlier.

They all sat down at the table, and Shinji made introductions. "OK, my name is Ikari Shinji, this is my… this is Soryu Asuka. That's Hadased. This is a friend of mine, Aida Kensuke."

Asuka interjected "Stooge number two." And she only smiled when Shinji turned to regard her with an uncharacteristically angry face.

He turned to the girl. "Uhmm, and I did not catch your name."

The girl leaned forward and replied simply "Yevgenia." By the look of her she was about 16. She looked European which she confirmed later as Georgia. Very long brown hair framed a very thin face, and it all topped a proportionally thin frame. She sat with her hands under her thighs, taking everything in quietly.

It only took a few exchanged words with her to tell that she only knew a few words of English, and nothing of Japanese or Chinese. Or Pashtu, Farsi, or Arabic which Hadased also spoke. For the time being they would have to try and explain in general terms using pictures or something. To Kensuke, Shinji related all that they knew for sure, and Asuka sat with Yevgenia, trying to help her understand.

Kensuke did not really need as much explanation as the others. He had been there for much of the story, and caught the gist of everything quite well. With Yevgenia, Asuka was having moderate success. But she could not figure out how in the world to tell her about souls and such. Finally she let it drop and just left her with the fact that they were post-apocalypse and that there were people coming back slowly. Hadased made some tea for everyone which the two newcomers were especially thankful for.

* * *

Asuka and Shinji argued at length over what their next course of action. Shinji thought it would be a good idea to have someone down at the beach, since that seemed to be where everyone was coming from, to spot newcomers. Because they only had five people right now, Asuka countered that if they did that, they would not get anything else done because they would be changing people out all the time.

She wanted to check around the area and look at the lay of the land. Since there was power, there must be a power plant around close by that was still supplying. And if that was the case, then they needed to find out how much longer they could rely on it before they had to start doing without.

Finally they settled on a plan where they would drop off clothes taken from a store at the beach with a sign of some kind directing people to the house. It was not much, but it was worth something. Since Kensuke and Yevgenia had been up the night before, they could sleep for a few hours then get up for the rest of the day to get on the right sleep schedule.

Shinji started setting out blankets for Kensuke and Yevgenia while Asuka and Hadased looked around for a car to steal. It was not long before they honked at him from outside, and he left the two others to sleep, telling them he would be back in a few hours.

They drove down to the beach first to look at the area. This section was different than the area where they had come to. It was strewn with rocks and strands of seaweed littered the whole area. A ways down the beach, they saw the marina that Kensuke had described. And from about 20 feet from the waters edge all the way up to the first rise in the sand, you could see a single set of foot prints, obviously belonging to Yevgenia.

She was certainly an enigma. The Georgian had been very quiet the whole time, mostly because she could not understand but she was probably very shy too. She only came to them out of necessity. Also, she was very skinny. It looked like she had not had much to eat in a long time, and when Hadased had served some toast and jelly, she ate so much, that Shinji and Asuka both had thought she would be sick.

It turned out that the area was really a housing development for NERV personnel who worked at the nearby base. Because this one had been fully under SEELE control, it was not attacked or even threatened. It was also not hard to find. The road that they had originally walked down was merged with several others a mile down, and turned into a large traffic conduit that lead right to the front gates.

This one was an underground complex too, most likely they all were, although only the one in Tokyo-3 had been a Geofront. All of the gates where down and the rolling doors where locked down and blocking entrance. Not that they wanted to go in anyhow. It was possible that the base was generating the power, it would almost have to if it housed a MAGI computer system. Turning one of those off because of lost power would be devastating, not to mention impossible to recover from without having another one made, or grown or whatever they did.

Driving around they found that the "town" was essentially built. It had nearly everything needed. Government buildings and community type places, such as an administration building, library, and parks, where finished and even looked a little used, as well as shopping areas and restaurants. They stopped at a large looking store and went inside to get the clothes that they would leave out for any people who came.

It turned out to be more difficult than they expected, because you could not just get one size. By the time they were done, they had a huge pile of clothes separated into bunches to drop in different places along with several friendly looking signs written in English, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, and German. Each one was basically a set of directions on how to get to the house from the area they were in.

It was nearing around four hours that they were gone when the dropped off the last bundle of clothes, and signs on the beach, and headed back to the house. The two sleepers where still out, but they were hardly in the same condition that they had been left in. Shinji had known that Kensuke was a sound sleeper, but the girl must be his equal. She had turned 90 degrees and now had her head at Kensuke's back. Or it would have been his back had he not tried to roll over on her. Presently his arm lay over her head almost like he was using her as an arm rest.

"What a retard." Asuka grumbled.

"Shh. Lets go back outside. I don't feel like waking them up yet." Shinji headed back for the door with Asuka and a silent Hadased following.

"So, what happens if we start getting a lot of people at a time?" Shinji wondered once they were safely back out on the porch. "We are going to have to start putting people in houses, they can't all stay here."

"We could look in these others, right?" Hadased replied. "I mean, I like you two and all, but I need to live on my own." His clipped words were starting to disappear, replaced by the legato words that flowed into each other.

The houses around them all seemed to follow one of four or five floor plans. From the area they had covered during their drive around, there were several hundred homes, and the whole development was only half done with the other half still under construction.

"Well you can take whatever you want, I guess. It is not like it is ours to give. But it is also not like there is anyone around to take it from either." Asuka looked around at the silent homes that filled the otherwise empty grass lots. SEELE had really spared no expense, but then they did not have to worry about really footing the bill anyhow. What would they do with money after a Third Impact that they had instigated?

"I think I am going to go wake up the other two. We can go house hunting together. One of you want to come?" Hadased got up and moved to the door looking back at them.

"No, I think I want to stay in this house for now." Shinji said a little absently.

Asuka turned to him with eyebrows starting to lower, and Hadased took his cue to beat a retreat. He had already seen Asuka start her berating routine on Shinji, and he really did not want to be around in case she decided to turn it on him too.

"Hey, go find your own house. You can't live with me. I was going to stay in this one." Her voice rose until Shinji was squinting against the verbal onslaught.

"Well you should have said something earlier. You did not claim it, so I did. **You** go find **your** own." He was secretly amazed at himself. He had only allowed himself to be stubborn like this a few times, most recently with Misato and even once or twice with his father. It had felt pretty good being stubborn against his father. And it felt good again.

Asuka was looking at him agape. "Well, you… you can't do that. I am staying here!" She crossed her arms over her chest triumphantly.

"Fine, just don't try to take my room. I want the first one on the right in the hallway."

"Oh sure! You get the close one while I have to walk a half mile to mine."

Hadased, Kensuke, and Yevgenia were sneaking away, and managed to get away without Asuka or Shinji really noticing them. Meanwhile the mostly one-sided argument went on unabated. Shinji would just speak to Asuka in his normal low voice tone, and Asuka would shriek at him. Fortunately for Shinji, Asuka had stopped hitting him since he hit her back one time several months before.

"A half mile? It is like 5 steps to the next room on the left." His soft tone only seemed to anger her more, and Shinji was finding out why Touji had liked being in on Asuka's rants. It was kind of comical how she got so angry from things. Of course he had spoken with the psychiatrist at NERV not long before… about a lot of things, one of which being Asuka. The doctor who had become something of a friend of his, and told him that Asuka's behavior was largely just a show.

Shinji leaned back against a post and took a deep breath, and this prompted Asuka to stand up and stomp away. She sat down on the other end, brooding with her dark thoughts and little schemes.

Shinji, finally able to relax again, wondered about his future. This was not much of one. At least they were not the only ones here. If that were the case, they would likely be at each others throats all the time, or become hermits or something. Still, she was pretty, and she had still not changed out of the too-small shirt and shorts. She probably wanted him to look, if nothing more than for attention.

She was quite the mystery to him. The epitome of female as he knew it. She could turn serenity into sheer hell in only a moments time, but there were times, however rare, when he really enjoyed her company. One of those few was when she had discovered him wallowing in his depression. His cello had always produced such wonderfully sad music, and he had been able to take refuge in it's sound. And she had liked it.

It was odd, really. He had been depressed for so long, that he almost liked feeling sad. He would purposefully listen to sad music to make him that way. But he liked people being nice to him too. Kaji had been nice. He had liked Kaji.

"Shinji, I'm bored." Asuka, who had been listening to the birds singing for the last few minutes, announced this in what Shinji had equated to a threatening tone. Anytime Asuka was bored, Shinji usually ended up paying for it.

"Uhh…umm OK. Well Why not go look at houses with Hadased and the others?" It would be a good way of getting rid of her. But of course that simple statement would not shake her off.

"Because I told you, I am going to live here. If you want to also… Fine! But the first time you are a pervert around me, you can hit the road!" Asuka stood up like she was going to go inside.

"Alright. I was kind of thinking about having Kensuke and Yevgenia stay here too. We can't really ask them to go live on their own can we?" He had known she would be irate about that too. "Or are you going to tell me that Kensuke is grown enough to take care of himself." Shinji smiled, but Asuka could only see his back. She had said on many occasions just what children they were. Now she would have to concede on one of three fronts, and Asuka really hated conceding.

"I will have you out of this place inside a week, Third Child! Just see if I don't." She nodded her head in finality.

"And don't call me Third Child anymore. I never did like that title." Shinji stood up and turned around, but he saw that the door was already closed. Maybe she had not heard him, but he thought she had.

He could hear the wind blowing through the low lying buildings of the town, making a rushing, moaning sound. It was peaceful, but active at the same time. How weird.

* * *

Later on that day, Will came. He was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans that they had laid out on the beach. He was older, maybe 60, and had long gray hair and a thick full gray beard and moustache and despite the clothes, he looked distinguished, learned. It must have been the way he carried himself.

They were all sitting out on the porch again. Hadased, had picked out a house, but they had looked through about ten. Kensuke and Yevgenia had agreed to stay with Asuka and Shinji, simply because Kensuke did not like the idea of living alone, and to Yevgenia, they were the only friends that she had. She was in a strange place, with near strangers, friendly ones no doubt, but strangers nonetheless.

Will walked slowly across the lawn, and when he was only about 20 feet away, they stood and went out to greet him.

He stopped a few feet away, and looked around smiling. "Nice place you got here." He looked at Hadased and held out his hand. "My name is William. I have a last name, but it doesn't really mean much to me. Just call me Will." He shook Hadased's hand vigorously, and went down the line, exchanging pleasantries with everyone. He stopped for a moment at Shinji. "You are Ikari Shinji. I have never really met you, but I know a lot about you. A lot. We can talk later." He smiled again and moved on to Yevgenia, whose hand he kissed, then stood back.

"So, who wants to tell me what us humans have done to ourselves now?"

* * *

With Will, it took longer in some points and less time on others to relate their situation. It was getting to where, Shinji thought they may need to type out an explanation and just have people read it. He was getting tired of telling it, but on the other hand it led him to a few insights about what was happening.

"So, this projects sole purpose was really to force our way into heaven. Well, I don't know if God will stand for that. He does not like being forced into things." Will sat back on the sofa he was in, and looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Well, I figure that this is the only place receiving people on Earth." An eyebrow shot up on his wrinkled forehead and he looked at them. "Why do you think that is?"

Shinji looked down, but everyone else shook their heads, and Will pointed at him.

"I think it has to do with him. I would not say that I know everything about you Shinji, but I know… I remember quite a bit. And I would venture to guess that you know a lot about me." He smiled one of his characteristic old-man-who-knows-more-than-you smiles and continued. "I remember something before I washed up on the beach over there, but it was after I went to sleep last night. Mind you it may have been a dream. It may have… But I don't think so.

"I imagine it was like being in the womb. It was warm and viscous, but you could not really feel anything because it was like you had never felt anything else, so you don't have anything to compare to. Have you ever been to a tour place where you can pay for a tour guide or get a radio and headset that picks up from transmitters along the way? I would go by and I could hear for just a second, little bits of people. Some would scream, some were laughing, a few were crying. But I heard you, Shinji, and you were talking. You weren't talking to me, and I didn't hear the other person. But I saw you. I saw things that you had seen. I saw things you had thought. I saw You. And I think you saw me too, but you may not know it yet."

"Why do you think that?" Shinji was scared. Not really for himself, but that someone else might know him as well as he did. That was frightening.

"What is my birthday, Shinji."

"I.. I don't… February 25th." Asuka turned to him worriedly.

"What year?" He smiled again. "I am quite old mind you."

"1945. You were born in 1945?"

"Yep. I am 70 years old. Should be 71 in a few days, assuming this is still pretty close to the day I left. I just wasn't ready to go I guess. I liked it here. Or there in the US anyhow." He cleared his throat, and looked at Shinji again. "Who were you talking to, then, Shinji? No one else there was talking. But you were."

"That was… my Mother. I was always told that she died when I was young, but she was still there. She was inside my Eva. I was talking to her, and Rei and Kaoru, too. But Rei and Kaoru weren't themselves anymore."

Will let it drop, and sat back and thought for a while. Outside it was starting to darken and the shadows were growling long in the orange light that was cast over everything. The uneasy silence held for several minutes. Everyone seemed somber except for Will who was musing about whatever old men do. Even Asuka was quiet, and she looked at the side of Shinji's downcast face with a mixture of emotions. Regret for things she had said to him about his mother, and a little bit of a kinship feeling because she too had found a once thought lost mother and lost her after only too brief a visit.

"Well, what say we rustle up some grub?" Will said hopefully. He was getting hungry as was everyone.

"Grub? Eww. No grubs." Hadased replied with a disgusted look.

"Ha! No, not a grub, but some grub. Some food. Grub is what country bumpkins like me call it sometimes." Will said putting his thumb in is chest to indicate himself.

"Where did you live, anyhow? Where you on a farm or something like that?" Asuka asked.

"Not on a farm. I lived in Texas, near Houston. For a long time I worked for a big company that contracted out to NASA, and I worked at the Space Center there. But I got laid off a few years ago, they said they did not need me anymore and gave me early retirement. But, what the heck. I am here and they are not. At least, not yet." His grin came easily and every one nodded agreement. Will was a likable guy. He was friendly and amiable, and he liked to smile. That was easy enough to see by the deep laugh lines in his face.

Hadased stood up and asked Shinji to help him in the kitchen. They would need something substantial tonight; the last few meals had only been sandwiches and light food.

* * *

"I think I am going to go to the store tomorrow and get some food. There is not much left here, especially that will make a lot. We are also going to have to get a bigger kitchen if we get more people. I can't make enough stuff for everyone in this little one. Six people is stretching it." Hadased remarked, looking through the cabinets. Shinji agreed. The people who lived here before, a Vietnamese family named Phon must have not been much on cooking, because they had a lot of easy, quick dinners in the pantry.

Fortunately they were also open to other culture and cuisine. They had foods from all over in there. Tonight it looked like it would be a big plate of spaghetti and sauce. There was not much in the way of staples and it would be the simplest idea. There was ground beef in the freezer, spaghetti and sauce in the pantry and lots of spices in a rack on the wall.

The Phon family had really been quite the diverse group of people. There were indications all over the house. There was the study where a very large bookshelf was put up along one wall with all manner of paper and electronic books and both had been doctors in one field or another as evidenced by the diplomas on the wall. To (pronounced TOE), the husband, had even graduated from the Polytechnic in Berlin. The kids had undoubtedly been very good students in school themselves; there were report cards on the fridge from 4th grade teachers with good marks all over them.

"How long are you going to cook for everyone? I mean I can cook for myself… and Asuka and the others." Shinji took out the beef and opened the freezer wrap, then put it in the microwave oven.

"I don't know. This is what I did in Bahrain at my store. I cooked, and I sold simple little things like drinks and magazines. But mostly it was more like a restaurant." He smiled as he started running water in a large pot. "It was fun, and I was good at it."

"What did you serve?"

"You name it, I probably served it. I changed a lot to keep things new. I have served Chinese, American, Mexican, Brazilian, German, French, Italian, Russian, Japanese. And a whatever else I could find recipes for. There was a man who came in once and said that he could really go for some Venezuelan food. I told him if he could get me a recipe book for it, I would make it for him. Sure enough he brought me one." Shinji laughed at that. Hadased sounded like a competent cook who really liked doing it. Hadased set the water to boil on the stove.

"So how long are you going to cook for people? If we keep getting people coming in, you are going to have a lot real fast." The microwave beeped and Shinji took the beef out.

"Well just for a while. Just until they can get settled and start doing it themselves. Do you think that community center has a big kitchen?"

* * *

"What are your plans with this place anyhow, young lady?" Will asked looking to Asuka.

"Why do you ask me? I am not in charge." Asuka sat in one of the smaller chairs in the living room as did Yevgenia and Kensuke, both of whom had been quiet most of the time.

"Well, I think that right now, whoever wants to be in charge, or whoever CAN be in charge is in charge. You and Shinji both have more to do with the situation than any of us do. You have also been here longer, even if only for a few hours. I am not really a good choice to be in charge, if that is what you are thinking. I am old, and my health is failing. Heck just cause I came out of the water today doesn't mean I am not going into the ground tomorrow." He searched her face. "So, what do you plan on doing here?"

Asuka thought for a few moments before replying. "Well, lets assume for a moment that we are the only place where people are coming back at. I would think that we could use this city as a place for them to live."

"But…" He said raising a finger.

"But what?"

"But, you need to start somewhere. I mean I know you are starting here." He said waving his arms at the house. "But I mean you are going to have a town or a city or something soon, and you need to start figuring out what you are going to do with people. You have to expect that those who return will not do so in ones and twos. Maybe it is like turning on a faucet. It starts at a little and then turns into a flood."

"Ok, then. Today we went in search of the power plant that feeds this town. I think that it is at a NERV installation nearby. The one we worked at in Tokyo-3 had one, as did the one in Germany. So I would say secure the power. And the MAGI."

Will seemed perplexed. "What are the MAGI?" Obviously he had not run into everything that Shinji knew.

"That is the super-computers that run the operations at NERV. Each base has a copy of the original that was in Tokyo-3. I remember someone saying that they ran many of the automated functions of the city also. That is another thing I would want to secure."

Will swished his mouth back and forth once in thought. "Well once you have your power, and some more people, I think you might want to start going through these houses, and get them ready for people coming in. You said earlier that you had been afraid that people would be… liquid? LCL?" He looked for a nod from Asuka. "theat they would be in chairs or beds or something. Well, I would start by getting housing ready for people who come in.

"I imagine that they will want a place to stay and settle while they get over their… experience. Then maybe they will stay and help out."

"Well what if I don't want to run a town. I was trained to be an Eva pilot." Asuka almost whined.

"Well I had a drafting credential and got involved in electrical engineering in the space business. I didn't know anything about electrical stuff, but I learned, and I was good at it. And I enjoyed it after a while. Ronald Reagan was not taught how to be a President, he was a movie star for crying out loud, but he did pretty good in my book."

"Who?"

* * *

Hadased and Shinji ended up laying out the food on the dining room table and everyone took it into the living room on their plates. It was a heck of a meal of spaghetti and sauce, and they had salad and garlic bread with it.

Asuka talked to Shinji while they ate about things they needed to do in the upcoming days. Shinji was daunted at first, but with some careful prodding from Asuka he agreed willingly enough. Kensuke busied himself for a while trying to teach Yevgenia English, and everyone was amazed by how much spaghetti she ate. With the thin frame that she had, she put away several helpings of food, and when it was all over let out a proportionally sized belch that everyone laughed at, and her face turned quite red.

Hadased asked Will if he wanted to stay the night at his place since they did not have a house for him yet, and Will agreed. They could do it tomorrow morning. As the sun finally set, they turned on the light outside, and they all talked about things for another hour or two before parting for the night.

It was going to be a busy time ahead for them, and there was little that they could do about it but help out. Surely things could be better this time around right? Maybe they could have people living together in relative peace, having seen what happens when more or less evil people decide the fates of others.

Yevgenia and Kensuke went to bed first, still tired from earlier on, but not before Kensuke could slip in a "You sly old dog, trying to get in good with the red headed devil, I see!" to Shinji, and then he was off to bed.

"Asuka?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you on a personal level?"

"I guess so. Why do you want to talk to me? You are more chummy with Kensuke. He knows you better than I do." She scoffed a little, but Shinji was unperturbed.

"No he doesn't." Shinji left it at that for a few heartbeats. "Do you hate me Asuka? I don't want that to sound accusatory, and I would not blame you. But I just want to know. Am I a good person?" Shinji stopped when she crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

"I don't hate you, Shinji. I… I just… I just don't know." Asuka sighed a heavy sigh and looked at him. She thought about saying something to step on him, but she realized that if he was asking this, it was serious. And the last thing she needed was to lose the last person in the world who… Who what? Understood her? She didn't even understand herself. She could never like a boy like him.

'Then why do you stick around me then' he said in her mind. The color came up in her cheeks and Shinji saw another outburst coming on. Just as she opened her mouth to say something smart to him, he got up.

"Thanks Asuka." And he smiled as he walked to his room.

Asuka sat in the living room for a few more minutes wondering what just happened. He had just thanked her for giving him a more or less ambiguous answer. She guessed it was better than the alternative. But she did not hate him. And even though she had seen fit to tell him she did in the past, she could not now, having seen him in the current light. He was essentially the same boy, but there were things about him that she had never known, and had never allowed herself to find out. Just enough to keep from hating him. She smiled to herself and went to get ready for bed.

* * *

I know, I know. Life After Eva is still not done. I am working on it, I have just kind of written myself in to a dead end, and I have to backtrack a little maybe to work my way out of it. Or risk next chapter sounding stupid. I don't know.

Either way, I had some ideas rolling around up here Indicates head and thought I should put them down before I lost them.

Still over here in Afghanistan, and despite the lousy weather (hot, hot, hot and very dry) and the less than spectacular scenery (I only see things in 3 shades of brown now) I am doing alright. Several more months and I will be back out of here, and back in the land of green. I like green. I miss green.

Since there is a bit of a lull right now, I will likely be writing and submitting more often, so expect a few chapters right away and then a break. Maybe one of these days I will finish one of my series in a satisfactory ending. If I have not told you yet, I generally write in an effort to explore the characters and what they mean to me. Some people like to read it and that is fine. Some people don't and that is fine too. I don't always have a real direction I am going in these , so if it is on one of these stories that you have staked your existence, let me soften the blow now… It may not have an ending. It may be more abrupt than Thelma and Louise (who incidentally died in their car at the bottom of the canyon when it exploded, for those of you hoping for a nice ending to that one. They died. Let em be.

I thought about writing an little aside to this one like a little omake, but I just couldn't come up with anything funny I wanted to say. And I consider myself a funny guy. Maybe not funny. Maybe funny looking. Or whatever. And please, if you need to ask a question, please don't post it in the review. Just send it to my stinking e-mail. It makes it so much easier. Until the next chapter, see you later.


	3. Challenges

07 April 2016

I think I'm going to have to have a talk with Shinji. He and Asuka obviously want to be a couple, they just can't seem to admit it to either each other or themselves. Anyone who would stick with someone who mistreats them so much obviously does, but also someone who stays with someone they act like they dislike... Yup, they have the hots for each other.

On a side note, I think I am going to bite the bullet and ask Yevgenia if she will go with me. I like her a whole lot, and now that I have taught her a good bit of English, she seems to even enjoy my company. She even lets me call her Genie! I think Touji and Shinji were the only ones who ever really liked me, so I just have to try it.

It's been 2 months and people are still coming in. We are at about 500 right now. They keep coming, and we keep restocking the clothing piles. They put a person kind of "on duty" over at the beach to sort of welcome people. They change them off every 8 hours or so, and that seems to work a little better than the signs.

Hadased is really getting a workout at the Kitchen. He opened the place not long after we really started picking up, and now he has five assistants. They make meals for nearly everyone since most of us are still working hard on this town. The houses started filling up really quickly and Shinji saw the need to finish the houses that were under construction. Several of the men who came in not long ago had worked in construction, and they went and inspected a couple of the houses, and said if they could get a hold of the supplies that were being used for those houses they could finish.

Shinji is working today to clear out the few cars that are blocking roads and stuff. Asuka is doing something down at the NERV area with Will and another woman. The woman, Gayle, I think, worked at a fusion plant much like the one here for a long time, and Will was an electrical engineer. If anyone can make that place run, they can I guess.

I started poking around on the MAGI system the other day. It is really an amazing thing. Oh if only I had time to play some games on it. Can you imagine the frame-rates and levels of detail I could achieve? Oh, that would be so cool! But it is minimum processing mode, which was set by a virus that Dr. Akagi introduced to it. It is proving to be very troublesome. Not to mention that several life support systems blew out on it, and I think that might could have damaged it. It had only just happened the morning that I got in here, so maybe not. I really hope not. I don't know the first thing about growing one of these things...

Anyhow, I think I am going to tell Shinji he needs to take the plunge. Teh KeNsUkE demands it!!!1

"OK! OK! PEOPLE!" Shinji's voice boomed over the microphone, and he signaled to Janice to turn it down a notch.

"Uhm. Can I have your attention please? I just wanted to get everyone while we were together, to put some things out. I know this has been hard on you all. We are trying to get things back to some kind of normality, but it is taking a while. We need some more volunteers for the house building. If it looks like we are going to fill them all up, which we likely will, we will have to start moving people into the apartments and stuff further into town.

"Also, we need to come up with a name for this place. I don't really feel like calling it NERV Hong Kong, so if anyone can think of a good name, slip it in the box over at the town hall.

"Next, we need to see about establishing police or constables or something. Not that there has been any trouble. This is just a precautionary measure. There will be a meeting on this subject on Monday of next week at 2:00 PM. Anyone with military or police experience is encouraged to attend.

"And we need baby sitters and teachers. I just got a whole bunch of complaints from parents who can't work because they have little ones. I know you all did not come back here to work, and I am sorry that I have to ask, but if it doesn't get done, well then it doesn't get done, and we lose work."

Will smiled at that. He had been helping Shinji with his public speaking as well as his English. It seemed like most everyone spoke at least a bit of English, and it was the only mostly common language between them.

A man down front stood up. He was new. Very new from the look of the jeans he was wearing. They were very new too. He might have just arrived that morning. Most people changed out of their arriving clothes pretty quickly and got more comfortable ones.

"Yeah I have a question." He was American. They were usually the ones who asked this question at these things.

"Uhhm. OK Go ahead." Shinji knew what was coming, and he had still not gotten accustomed to answering.

"Yeah, why you? Why are you the leader. A kid. You're what 15 years old? What do you know about politics?" The man stood there, virtually alone, because he was the only one who wanted to know.

Shinji looked at Will, and Will nodded back to him. Go ahead, answer him.

"Sir? Are you a politician?" He asked this almost hopefully.

"No."

"Then what do **you** know about politics? If you want the job so damned bad, **you** lead people. But please take responsibility for your actions. That is all I can ask of you if you do." He stared hard into the man's eyes, directly at him, and in only a few seconds, the man lost his bluster and sat down again. Shinji really hated doing that. Intimidating people by standing on a stage over them, and staring them down. That is not who he was. He didn't really see how he was so intimidating anyhow.

Recently though, when he thought about himself at night he found that he was becoming a bit more... belligerent... than he used to be. His voice started cracking a few days ago also, and it hurt his throat. He had been doing a lot of talking lately, so maybe that was it.

"I know it is hard living with such diversity, but I think that if we try and accept each other it will all be alright. Enjoy the rest of the show! Good night all." He quickly left the stage, and the Harrison family went up to play some music in their little bluegrass band. Earlier there had been a short sort of opera, and there was supposed to be four guys who had formed a bullfrog barbershop quartet a little later.

Will greeted him as he came down. "You're getting good at talking to the people. Now if only they would stop challenging you."

"Yeah I know. I just wish that I didn't have to be mean like that." Shinji turned to look at the banjo player who was now filling the hall with some very fast playing. The twang was quite a different sound than he was used to coming out of a stringed instrument.

"There are hard people in the world, Shinji. It's a fact of life. And you have to be hard too. I know you don't like it. It reminds you of your father. But he was not only hard, he was hard hearted. And therein lies the difference between you." He smiled at Shinji. "Never let yourself become hard hearted."

"Well, I don't know if I should really be doing this."

"I remember you saying that you did not want us, meaning humans, to mess things up again. Well, I told you, Shinji. You need to have a solid foundation to build on, and the only way to be sure something is done the way you want it is?"

"Do it yourself. I hope your right, Will."

"Well, me too. I have faith in you, Shinji. I'd like to think that I saw strength in you when I could not see you, but maybe that is just a way of rationalizing your ability to give the choice back to the people of the Earth. Let them decide what they want, rather than deciding for them."

"You know, sometimes I wonder when I will get a break. Aren't politicians and public officials allowed to have vacations?" To emphasize his point Shinji yawned. He had been getting up early and staying up late a lot recently.

"Heh, well back in the US, it seems that's all they did was vacation. Which reminds me..." Will often said this last phrase, Shinji suspected that it really did not remind him, he just said it when he thought of whatever he was about to say for whatever reason. "When are you going to talk to Asuka? I know Kensuke told you the other day that you need to get together with her. You know she **has** mellowed out a bit recently."

Shinji thought it over, and hoped that his continued silence would get them off the subject. No such luck however.

"You can't be a loner forever, you know? Well, just thought I might push a little. That is about all us old people can do." He smiled again. "By the way, you might want to thank her for me. She hooked me up."

"What do you mean?"

"Well she introduced me to that woman Gayle when she brought her down to the plant, and I think she might have whispered something in her ear. Gayle has been a friendly companion, and I just don't know how to broach the subject with Asuka. Maybe you could do it for me." He patted Shinji on the back a couple of times.

"Will? Are you in love?" Shinji asked smiling widely.

"What? No way! I am too old to fall in love."

"I didn't know there was an age limit."

"Well, maybe just a little bit." Will conceded.

The bluegrass players on stage finished out another stirring fast-paced song that elicited cheers and applause from the gathered people. Hadased made an announcement that there was a new batch of cookies ready to eat if anyone wanted them. Shinji thought he should have made a sign or something because there was a stampede in short order that threatened to trample several of the slow movers.

Hadased had been busy lately, teaching cooking and managing the Kitchen, which was housed in the community center in town. Every day he put out more and more food, and it always seemed to be proportional to the people. Shinji did not know how he did it. He had stopped by the week before and got the run down for the food they were preparing that day. It was starting to tax the food supply, so he was also employing runners who would search out food that he needed. They had recently stumbled onto a veritable treasure trove at a prison in town. They had a warehouse full of staple type items: flour, sugar, powdered eggs and milk, butter, baking powder, yeast, nearly everything he needed. They had seized a meat packing company early on, and had flash-frozen the remaining meat so that it could be used later. Regardless, they would need people growing things, and soon. Hopefully they would get some farmers or something soon.

People seemed to come in waves. After Will had come they stopped for a day or so, then five came. Then 10 the next day. 14 the day after that. And so on, but it capped out at 30 per day. Then they stopped for a day or two and started again. Some days they would get a whole bunch of people in, and some days they would only get one or two.

Kensuke walked over and sat next to them while the group got ready to play another song. These talent nights were a good idea. It was open mike so anything someone wanted to share was alright, and it was a good chance for people to socialize.

"Hey Shinji, how are things out here on the surface going?" Kensuke had been at the NERV compound kicking the MAGI for a couple days straight now. He and Yevgenia both. Genie had proven to be quite the mechanical whiz, despite her age and looks. The inside of the computer was unlike anything that Kensuke had ever seen. A real maze of pipes and hoses, conduits and wires all snaking in and out of three huge towers embedded in the floor of the command area.

Whoever had designed it had been a true genius. Unfortunately, according to logs found in and around the computers, the personnel at the base had been locked out by none other than Dr Akagi and a very powerful fractal cascading virus that was running the system in circles.

And then there was the hardware. How in the heck do you hack into a system that is really several brains with computer connections on then? He was reading through some of the technical journals and notes and he was having a bit of a hard time keeping up. He should have paid more attention in biology, but he also didn't think that it would have helped much.

"Well things are going alright I guess. Did you finally ask Genie out?" Shinji looked at him sideways.

"Yeah. She said yes. Actually she said 'Yeg', but I took that to mean the same thing." He didn't tell him that they had fooled around in one of the crawlways.

"Alright, good for you!" Will shook his hand, and laughed.

Across the community hall Asuka sat sipping some tea from a plastic cup. Yevgenia and Beverly were sitting next to her. They had been joking around and gossiping for a while, before Kensuke had come in. Asuka watched him, and he talked to Shinji and Will shook his hand and laughed and they all had a good time.

"Why are guys like that?"

"Huh? Like what?" Bev asked.

"Ok. Kensuke and Genie, right? Genie has been, like, holding signs in front of his face for weeks with "ASK ME OUT" written on them, figuratively of course, and he finally does, and when he tells the other guys they make it like he bagged a deer or caught a big fish or something!" Asuka's voice had steadily been getting louder and higher pitched; several people nearby had taken notice too.

"Oh, Asuka, let it be."

"Jess. Eet doss not matter to uss. Why do jou let it worry hyou?" She was also a little self conscious of her speech so she tried correcting herself while speaking. Genie put her hand on Asuka shoulder.

"I don't know. It just pisses me off that they hold you up like some kind of trophy." Asuka snarled a little at the last word.

"Vell, I don't sink Shinji vood do that to jou." She grinned deviously.

"What are you getting at?" Asuka asked turning a little to regard her friend.

"Just making observation. I think jou should hold up sign for heem." Yev's grin broadened. "Maybe... something like..." She whispered in Asuka's ear.

"Absolutely not! That is... is... unthinkable! I would never let that pervert do that!" Her face nearly matched her hair.

"Ohh, come off it Asuka. You know he isn't like that. I may have only known you guys for like a month, but I'm pretty sure Shinji is no pervert." She let that hang for a moment. "Or are you trying to scare the rest of us away from him?" She laughed again as Asuka started into another fit.

Beverly was just about to leave when she remembered something. "Asuka, did you turn Gayle on to Will?"

"Yeah, why?" Asuka had indeed mentioned that Will was a nice guy, and that she would probably like him.

"Well I overheard the two of them talking, and I think Will is going to tell Shinji that he should confront you. Just thought I might warn you so you can blast him out of the water when he tries. I know you love doing that." Beverly sighed and Genie looked at her knowingly.

"You almost sound like you disapprove."

"Well I guess I do a little. You know, Shinji is a pretty good guy. Sure he is a little bit of a loner, but I still don't see why you...'down' him all the time. I sometimes feel a little sorry for him."  
  
"I sometimes do too. And sometimes I think he **wants** people to be sorry for him." Asuka watched Shinji from across the room. He was quiet as usual, and was not really taking part in the congratulatory exchange between Kensuke and Will, or the festive spirit of the gathering night.

Genie and Kensuke left together, to be alone for a while, so they missed Shinji's impromptu performance. Someone had heard that he played a good cello from Asuka (she had let it slip despite her good judgment) and wanted to find out how good he was.

"Awww. Come on... Shinji? Please?" The girl, what was her name, pleaded with him. The eyes of the auditorium where on him. Marie. That was her name. She had come in alone about four or five weeks ago. She was twelve and was on one of Hadased's running crews.

"I don't know. I told you I don't play that well, and it's been a long time since I played anyhow. I'm a little out of practice... Besides, you only have one cello." Hopefully that would stop her short. It really did not work well to pass an instrument back and forth.

"There is another backstage. All tuned and ready to go."

"Yeah but I would have to warm up."

"There is still another act to go before we can go up. Please? Pretty please?" She begged.

Will jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow, and nonchalantly mouthed the word "Asuka" and threw his eyes in her direction. Shinji sighed. "OK I'll do it. But you owe me." He spoke towards Marie, but he was looking at Will, who just grinned all the more and nodded once.

Marie led him back stage with Asuka tracking them both the whole way to the curtain. She fumed over what she, Bev, and Genie had been talking about. They were not going to rest until they had her sharing a stupid candle lit dinner or something with the Invincible Shinji. She drummed her fingers while she endured the terrible rendition of "Inna gotta whatever" on stage. Ugh. Some people belonged on stage, that last person **did not**.

The curtain lifted again with Shinji and Marie both sitting astride their respective cellos. Each had a microphone, but neither had music.

"OK, playing from memory, no more than 5 minute pieces, and try to keep up the tempo." Marie smiled. She always loved challenging people. She had not seen or heard Shinji play though, all she had to go on was the grudging admission that Shinji was good from his apparent arch-nemesis, Asuka.

Marie played a quick little contemporary number from Jason Halding's 1984 suite "Unnamed Cello" series. The first movement was only about 4 minutes long, and was fast paced at the beginning and end with a slow point in the middle.

She had only played the first few bars when Shinji smiled and knew what he was going to play next. When she neared the last full minute mark of the piece, he started marking time with his foot, and just as she ended, he picked up the second movement where she left off. Even though he was not very fond of the faster music, his cello teacher had drilled this and several other Halding suites along with a little known Mitzuki Atchiko, who also favored fast deep cello works. The entire "Unnamed Cello" series had been written like a five act play in that, during the first act, it was kept in midrange tones but fast paced most of the way through to establish the norm of the opening, then in the second, the antagonist was introduced with lower range notes accompanied by a few small altercations with the protagonist indicated by portions with higher notes.

As Shinji finished, Maria picked up the song, allowing him a rest. He was starting to sweat, and his hand was already trembling. The Hero was being beaten by the antagonist right now, and the damsel, whoever she was, if indeed she was a she, would shriek occasionally. Antagonist pounds away with his low notes, driving home his terrible beating to the Hero. Now as the act finished, Shinji took up the bow, and played out the medley of the Hero working himself back into shape, sort of a montage type uplifting score now, readying himself to beat the bad guy, and then the final battle, very fast, ranging across three octaves and the song went all over the place.

The antagonist was landing punches and blows or whatever, but the Hero was fighting back, and beating him down! Shinji was afraid at the 3 minute mark on his portion that he was going to be unable to finish, his hand was shaking so bad. This was a hard piece to play when you had not played in nearly 6 months, and without a proper warm up, for either yourself or the instrument. With the antagonist down at last, he was allowed to stop while Maria played through the dénouement. She was very good. Probably better than he was, too. She was playing through a particularly fast, but moving portion where the damsel was thanking the Hero or professing her love or something, and one of her strings broke with a loud tang!

Laughing she stopped and it was only then that Shinji saw that she was shaking badly too. "Well, I guess the Hero doesn't get any love tonight." She smiled and the audience laughed. Maria breathed deeply catching her breath. "Well, Shinji you want to play something? I think I am all fast pieced out. I didn't expect you to keep playing on that one."

"Um, yeah let me see what I've got." He had memorized several slow and relatively short ones, and he decided on one that he had learned early on. It was a Bereva Onagossa piece, and it was very slow and deep in tone. He had read that she had written it after her husband had died. It was originally going to be a little lighter in tone to remember their happier times, but depression had gotten the better of her.

He played it in minor to add to the sad effect, and it really made a difference. The notes were so low at some points that the cello was vibrating the floor under his feet. Shinji could see a few faces through the lights, and many of the ones that he saw were knotted in anguish as they empathized with the tone of the music. The deeper the notes went, the deeper the hole in their hearts felt, almost sinking into oblivion at some points.

As he finished, the audience clapped and stood. Several people throughout were crying. Maria stood as well, laying the cello flat to clap too. Off to the side of the hall, Shinji could see Asuka smiling a little smile and shaking her head.

"You are going to have to teach me that one. Or get me some sheet music."

"It may be years before I get time enough to do it." The curtain fell and they were finally out of the light. There where paper towels backstage, and they used them to dry off. It was very hot concentrating in the light onstage.

"That was fun. If you would like we can do it again sometime."

"I think I'll pass. But if you would not mind playing against violin, I know someone who can play. She may not have much time now either though." The noise of the applause had died down as the last act of the night got up on stage.

"I'll think about it. In the meantime, looks like I am going to be a foodfinder. I hope you reconsider a rematch. I had a good time." She smiled and packed up her cello, then left via a side door.

The evenings were quiet around the town. Tonight was clear and without the tremendous light pollution in the main city of Hong Kong (they had decided to turn out lights a while back to conserve energy) there were millions of stars that they might otherwise not see. There were still a few streets worth of homes that remained dark, with no one living in them. But mostly, they glowed brightly with warmth and love.

There were quite a few "orphaned" children about. Most of them between 12 and 16. For the most part teens would group together in a house, so that they were not living alone, and smaller children were given to parents or couples for the time being.

Their house was dark as Shinji walked up the steps. Odd. All three of his roommates had left before he had. There was really not that many places to go around town after dark. At least, nowhere really interesting.

"Good evening, Shinji." It was Asuka. She was sitting in the porch swing. Not swinging, just sitting. He was not sure if he wanted to try asking her now. He wanted to plan his attack first. But then, maybe she just wanted to talk, or berate him a little.

"Umm. Good evening, Asuka. I saw you leave right after I played. Did you not like it?" He edged closer to the swing, but did not sit down.

"Oh... no I liked it, Shinji. It was very good. I never knew you could play like that. I only left because I wanted a few minutes to myself so I could think. Why don't you sit down, you looked tired on stage. Let's talk a while." The shadow that was Asuka, motioned to the area on the swing next to her.

The cool night air was blowing between the houses, and it moaned just a little soft note as it rounded the corner and swept through the open porch. The chains that held the porch swing off the ground creaked as they swung back and forth with the swing seat in tow. Asuka stopped the swing for a moment, and Shinji sat next to her then she kicked off again to set them back in motion.

"How has work been, Shinji? I have been away for a couple days and I haven't seen you much." Her voice was soft, like she was trying to be pleasant.

"Uhhm. It is going alright I guess. We are really starting to be a community. How are things at... NERV?" Shinji did not really like using things that his father had been involved with. But then, his father would never have authorized him to use things like he was, so it worked out alright he supposed.

"That's not NERV. That's just a compound that they once controlled. Now it's ours. The work is going alright. Gayle and Will are going to be shutting down some of the cells in the fusion reactor in a day or two since we are only using a tiny fraction of it's power output. That will also let us finish repairs on the Hydrogen processing facility. If we use up all the Hydrogen, we won't have any fuel. Oh, I almost forgot. There is a very large store of food being kept in the cold storage warehouses. I don't know how much, but it is a lot. Maybe that will hold us until we can start producing our own food." Asuka stopped talking and watched a couple walking down the sidewalk at the end of the street. They passed under a street light, and she could see the woman was hugging the man's side and he had his arm around her. She sometimes wondered what it felt like to be that close, then she looked sideways to the boy at her left, and abandoned that train of thought.

"A-Asuka? Can I ask you a question?" Shinji said uncertainly.

She raised her eyebrows in the darkness. "Sure, go ahead." He was probably going to ask some corny awkward question like "Will you go out with me?" Or something like that. She was ready for that though.

"Do you think that I am the right person to be 'In Charge'?" Shinji turned his head to look at her and could see that her mouth was open. She was trying to figure out something to say.

"Uhhm... Well, uhh. You do seem to be doing a pretty good job. You're still a dunce, but you haven't slipped up yet." The question had taken her quite by surprise.

Shinji smiled a little, and nodded. "Thanks Asuka. I think I needed that."

That last quip had gotten her. "What do you mean? I just called you a dunce and you acted like you like it."

"You also complimented me, saying that I was doing alright. Sometimes it's like you really do care."

Asuka was quiet for a while longer, stewing on that, wondering if Shinji was saying this to elicit a reaction from her. It had been a while since he did that, but occasionally he would take satisfaction in saying something that really pissed her off, and no matter how much she yelled at him he did not flinch anymore.

"What are they doing out there?" Kensuke peeked through the blinds and was joined a second or two later by his quiet companion. Yev had told him earlier that she and Bev had been pushing Asuka towards Shinji. Now they were alone together and not only where the sparks of love not flying... nothing was happening. Kensuke had already tried getting Shinji to say something to Asuka, but he just could not seem to get past his fear of rejection or fear of reprisal, or something.

Outside they were talking softly about nothing that really mattered. Small talk really. Yevgenia tapped him on the shoulder and they retreated to her bedroom. There they could turn on the light without the two outside noticing.

"I tink maybe I chould try persuading Asuka some more. I don't know what ees holding her back with heem." She looked to Kensuke for advice.

"You got me. I only know a little about her, and she never used to be this subdued at school. The slightest mention of love and Shinji in the same sentence would keep her going for hours. I mean it." He sat down on her bed, next to her.

"Vell, I guess I will see vhat I can do tomorrow. We have lunch tomorrow. And Bev vill be dere. She knows all about relationsheeps." She smiled and kissed him. This had been the real reason they had ducked out early. To heck with spying on Asuka and Shinji. If one couldn't see the other right in front of their faces, so be it. Right now, it was time to make out.

The door opened and Asuka only got a single step into the room before shrieking. "Oh my God! You brought him into our room?! Yev, why did you let a stooge come into my room?"

Genie kissed Kensuke a last quick one on his hurried way out the door, and rolled her eyes at Asuka. Once Kensuke was gone and the door closed, she launched on Asuka.

"Now vhy did hyou do that? I had a good thing going here." Yev got up from her bed and watched Asuka, hands on hips.

"I didn't know you were going to bring... HIM in here. He's worse than Shinji."

Genie narrowed her eyes and asked "Asuka..." long pause.... "Are hyou a lesbian?"

"WHAT?!"

"Hyou just seem to hate men, that is all I am vondering about. Eet is just Weird." Yegenia said, putting emphasis on 'weird'.

Asuka frowned at her, and stared at her for a moment then smiled. "No. I am not a lesbian. I don't hate men. I just... I don't know. I haven't had very good experiences with men. Maybe I should call them boys. They are all immature."

"Shinji does not seem dat immature to me. And I like Kensuke with his little immaturities." She laughed as Asuka made a gagging look.

"Shinji isn't immature really, he just... doesn't..." Asuka searched for the words, "deal with the world so well."

"None of us do, Asuka. Vee all deal vith eet in strange ways. I talk to myself sometimes. You throw temper tantrums. Shinji just takes eet and doesn't say much, or he apologizes." She shrugged. "Who left first, anyway?"

Asuka sighed. "I did. He's still out there. I got mad and called him some names."

"Vhat names?" Yev had a way of asking lots of questions. She loved knowing about everything.

Asuka looked around to avoid meeting her eyes. "Umm. Spineless, jackass, retard" Yevgenias eyebrows where slowly rising with each new insult "butthead, pervert, childish, worthless, unfeeling, low-life, reject, dumbass. And dunce." Asuka sighed again.

Genie rubbed her temples. "Asuka, vhy in the world did hyou call heem all that?"

"Well he said he liked me, and it all just came out. He is probably never going to talk to me again." Asuka sat on her bed, hands folded in her lap.

"Do you care?"

"Well of course. I have to have somebody to..." She huffed a third sigh. "I don't hate him or even dislike him. I do care about him. I am just a bad person sometimes."

Yev smiled at that. "Asuka, hyou are not a bad person. I have seen bad people before, and they are much worse than I think hyou have ever seen. I saw a man vearing a... 'bomb?' blow up an apartment building vith Christian families in it before. He vas a bad person. Hyou... Hyou are just not listening to hyourself very well." She looked at Asuka for a few seconds. Sitting there on her bed she seemed ashamed herself, at least a little. "We'll see vhat ve can salvage of this tomorrow."

Asuka watched Genie get ready for bed. "I think I am going to take a shower. I have been wearing these clothes for two days straight now. Ugh." She picked up a change of night clothes on her way out, and went into the bathroom by way of the living room. Shinji was still in the swing, looking at the sky, thinking.

A quick shower and re-dress later, Asuka exited the bathroom just in time to see Shinji's door finish closing. He had finally decided to come in. Asuka wanted to tell herself that she had not wanted to hurt his feelings, but she knew that she actually had. This was just a game to her sometimes and for Shinji it was very serious. And here is Asuka, trampling all over it, while he agonizes over it.

She went into her room, feeling worse than ever. Fortunately for her, she hadn't been sleeping well the last few nights so she was tired enough to go right to sleep despite all that had happened.

While they were waiting for the shuttle to the NERV complex, Genie pulled Kensuke aside. She did not want Asuka to hear, and needed a little space to conspire.

"Deed you talk to Shinji last night?" He was still rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and yawning while she spoke to him.

"Uhh. No. Sure didn't. He didn't want to talk after he came in, so we just went to sleep. Why, whats up?" He cracked his knuckles in an effort to loosen his tight hands.

"Vell, Asuka was... herself to Shinji last night, and she called heem... a lot of names. Eet vas bad. I am going to get with Beverly today at lunch and see vhat ve can make of it. If you see Shinji, reassure him if you can, OK?" The bus was coming so she stole a quick kiss and they rejoined the group.

Shinji's back hurt as he was climbing the stairs to his office. Actually it was not so much an office as it was a desk. He did not really like the great big office that was supposed to go to the mayor, if that is what he was. At 15 he was the youngest he had ever heard of. It was kind of weird how it had happened too. He and Asuka had been the first here, and then when people came in, they just accepted them as they were. Shinji supposed that so long as he made rational decisions, he would be in the towns favor.

He really only came to the office for an hour or two a day, and for any meetings that he had scheduled. Otherwise he was out working. Yesterday supervising the moving of wrecked cars, today he would be going over to the desalination plant, their water was getting low, and he was going to walk through with a couple of people who thought they could work it, given a little time. It had been inactive most of this time, and some things had to be cleaned and....

The voice mail light on his phone was blinking. He punched the mailbox key and Wills voice came on. "Shinji. I think you ought to get down here. I sent a message to Asuka too. We umm... We found something this morning that you ought to see. We are going to be down in plant access tube 14. Please hurry." Will's voice was tight and nervous, far from the jovial or sage voice that he normally sported.

Will, Asuka, Gayle, Kensuke and Yevgenia were walking down the hallway when he arrived running.

"Ahh! Good. You may know something about this." He walked briskly over to Shinji, and the rest followed. "Walk with me, Shinji.

"Gayle and I were going down to inspect the water cooling tubes this morning. They run from the bottom of the reactor, and we thought they went into the ground. There is an access tube that follows them the whole way. They are used to cool the water off before it goes back into the reactor." They came to an elevator with a stairwell going down just to the side of it. After everyone was in, Will closed the door, and they started their descent. "So we got down to the bottom, and it turns out that there are other rooms down there. They must have been using the warm water for heating because I can imagine it would get pretty cool down there." The elevator stopped and Will led the tour down another hallway.

"I just... I just don't know what to do, Shinji. I have never seen anything..."

They stopped at a door, and Will paused and looked at Shinji for a moment. Then he thumbed the open button, and a dim yellow light splashed across the smooth metal of the hallway, spilling out of the room. Shinji walked in first, followed by Asuka, Kensuke, Yev, Gayle and Will last.

"Oh my God." Asuka whispered. Through the semi-viscous yellow fluid, 2 bodies floated serenely oblivious to the world, unmoving. "Well that's just great!"

Authors notes:

This one was a bit longer than I usually write. I generally stick to 12 pages in MS Word or less, and this just tops 15. But I had a good time writing it, so it works out.

A couple of notes. I could not think of a name that I really likes for the town, so this is your chance. If you would like to send in suggestions, you can slip em to me by e-mail through FFN. Please don't put them in your review. Whomever the winning entry is, I think I might just write you into the story, how bout that? Anyhow, please make them tasteful. I can't name the town Turd or anything like that so, it kinda needs to be someplace you would not mind living yourself.

As for the ending... I don't do cliffhanging type endings much thinks back if at all, so I thought this would be a good one. Rubs hands deviously Who are they? What are they doing there? What is the heck is that terrible smell? And why am I asking you?

Anyhow, I will see what I can make out of the next chapter. This one verily raced along because I was listening to "Canta Per Me" at very high volume throughout the majority of it. What a great song.

Which brings me to another point. Before you go out looking, Mitzuki Atchiko, Bereva Onagossa, and Jason Halding are all made up. As far as I am aware there is no Unnamed Cello suite, or anything like that. The only reason I named it that is cause I couldn't think of a good name, and professional type musicians are sometimes pretty eccentric. Take 4'33" for example.

So, look for another installment in a couple of days. I am pretty satisfied with this story so far. Hopefully I can make it work better than my others. Most of the multi part stories did not really have a direction. They were just me exploring the characters. So until next chapter, see you later.

Chewie


	4. Don't Try to Sort Feelings

Dear Diary

I think I have unleashed a monster. Asuka is almost predatory sometimes, it seems. It has only been a few days since we started going out and she is wild. I kissed her for the first time the other day, and she must have really liked it because she wants to kiss all the time now. Not that I don't like it. Don't get me wrong, it is wonderful, but I just wonder if she is trying to rush things a little.

Oh man, she wrecks me. There is no end to the... things that she tries to do to me when no one is looking. I have not talked to Will recently. I wanted to ask him if this is what love is like for everyone or if this is just Asuka and me.

The days have been going by quickly lately. Kensuke is under a lot of pressure to break into the MAGI. Yevgenia is helping him out quite a bit. Asuka is getting the NERV hospital running again now that we have several nurses and a doctor. I don't think she goes down there much; she doesn't like hospitals. Neither do I for that matter.

She is coming over to my office for lunch today. I bet she is going to kiss me first thing. And it is not going to be a "greeting kiss". And despite how it occasionally makes me uncomfortable, I like it.

Asuka roamed around the room, yelling at high volume, never letting the tank in the middle leave her sight. It had taken a moment for the real anger to push past the numb stupor of discovery.

"What the hell are they doing here!" She pointed at the tank. "I thought that we were done with this crap! But no! We have leftovers in the fridge!" Yevgenia looked at Kensuke and he shrugged.

"Um. Maybe there are records. They always write things down. Of course I don't know what they were going to do with them. I hadn't known... SEELE must have had..." Shinji stood rooted to the entrance, and in fact everyone had been forced to edge around him in order to get in.

The tank was topped by tubes and pipes that almost reminded those acquainted with the MAGI of the innards of each of the huge computers. It was filled completely with LCL, and light shone up from the bottom, casting its brilliance on the naked bodies of Rei and Kaoru. Or more aptly, a Rei and a Kaoru.

"Well, we also have to figure out what to do with them! I am no fan of Wondergirl,"

"That's Rei." Kensuke advised to Yevgenia.

"But I have a bone to pick with this asshole. He stole my Unit 02 while I was out."

"What do you mean what to do with them?" Will asked. So far as he and everyone but Shinji and Asuka knew, the two children in the tank were quite dead.

"Will, I never told you everything about my father. He did some very... questionable things." Shinji stared at the ground, ashamed of his father, and the things that he had done to tarnish his name.

"Can we leave this place? I really don't like it here." Kensuke was edging towards the door, Yevgenia not far behind.

"So how did he transfer her soul and memories from one to another?" They were sitting in the disaster area that Asuka called an office. Will was fast on his way to more gray hairs, trying to wrap his mind around the scientific approach to something so abstract as "soul". Bev had joined them, but had stayed quiet, not wanting to speak out of place in a conversation that she only partially understood, having not seen the two teens floating in the tank under the fusion plant.

"I never found out how. Ritsuko, Dr. Akagi, wanted to show me the... the holding tank, once. Then she destroyed all of the extras. She said that only one could have the soul of Rei in it at a time. The rest were just empty vessels." He hated the cold nature of the words. They reeked of science, objectivity.

"So we **are** going to wake them up right?" Kensuke had been staunchly in favor of the idea. He looked at Asuka, thinking she would have an objection. Her history with Rei had not been without dark spots.

"I don't see how we can't. I am fine with killing Angels. But to kill a person like that... that would be more like murder. And we can't just leave them there, because that's the same thing."

"I don't know if it would work." All eyes turned back to Shinji. "Well, Rei and Kaoru's souls are not here. What if we try to revive them without a soul? Will they die? We should probably scour everything we can find about them before even thinking about it seriously." He leaned forward and held his head in his hands.

That seemed to be the way things happened with Shinji lately. Nothing could ever be nice and easy going and normal. They had already had problems overcoming cultural diversities, shortages in supplies, Kensuke had complained about how many video games where at the local game shop, and now they were faced with Kaoru and Rei.

"Shinji, just as soon as me and Genie crack open that MAGI, we will look into it. I bet there is loads of stuff in there." He patted Shinji's back for a little reassurance.

Shinji spoke through his hands, "What do we tell the people? I can't explain this to them." He looked up, searching for advice.

"We will tell them later. Maybe we won't tell them. Don't worry about this now. There isn't anything that we can do." Asuka stopped and thought for a second. "I can't explore this whole place, so I think one of the first things we need to do is get a group of people together to systematically go through this place. I have only opened about 10 percent of it up. So there could be anything in the rest of this place."

"Can you wait a week or so for it? We're running short on people."

Asuka looked crestfallen, she had wanted to explore this place and find out what else was in store from them. She sighed. "OK. Whenever you can spare some..."

"I think I am going to go be alone for a few minutes. I need to think a little." Shinji stood up and moved to the door.

"There is an office right next to this one, nobody uses it. It used to belong to some old man or something. You can be alone in there; nobody bothers that room." Asuka wondered what Shinji was thinking. He was looking really depressed, and she hoped that he was not sinking.

The office was dark and Shinji just left the lights off and plopped down in the chair. He had not thought that pains from before could follow him so easily. But there it was. Floating in a vat of LCL downstairs, the creations of his Father and SEELE, two people he had grown to love. And the one person left that he did love, would not hear it. He had tried to tell her his feelings last night, and she had blown up in his face.

He turned the chair around and leaned across the desk, resting his head on its cool surface. Above him he could hear the air flowing out of the duct, making a soft whoosh sound. It was relaxing. He sighed and sat up, dragging his hands across the desktop, when his fingers snagged on a book.

He picked it up and inspected it, and found that it was not a text book, but a journal or something. The book itself was not much to look at. It was hardbound, somewhat small, with green cloth stretched across the outside of the cover. Inside rows of neat Japanese handwriting filled the pages. He had only read the first page before he was hooked.

I have recently started thinking about my Hazuna a lot more, recently. I miss her so badly. I imagine that my time is nearly over, and I have not really accomplished anything that I really wanted out of life. If you asked me now, I would say that I wanted love, a family and thus, happiness. But I never did that. I never did say anything to her about it. I never told her I loved her.

I was 23 years old in 1947. And I moved to Tokyo in that year, having finished college. Hazuna lived down the street from me. She was the loveliest woman I had ever met, and words dripped from her lips like golden honey into my ears, so sweet a voice she had. I remember that the day I first met her, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her...

Just outside the office, Asuka and Bev stood listening to the silence inside. Every now and then they heard a page rustle, and then more silence. After a few minutes of this, they tiptoed back to Asuka's office to talk. The others had left so they could speak privately now.

"Asuka, I am kind of worried about Shinji. He doesn't seem to be taking any of this well. Granted, it is pretty creepy. I can understand what happened downstairs, it sounds kind of traumatic and I have not even seen it yet." She paused trying to get back to where this was going. "Did something happen last night when you two talked?"

Asuka ran her hands through her long hair, both as a means of pulling her hair back from her face, but it felt pretty good too. "Yeah. I screwed up last night. I yelled at him right after he told me that he liked me. I don't know what happened, but I just got angry. He was being so nervous and I almost had to drag it out of him. And I went ballistic. I called him some names." She looked up at Bev, almost asking for clemency. She knew that she had done wrong and was asking forgiveness of Beverly. But not from Shinji.

"Asuka. Really. You have got to start thinking of other people, or someone is going to freak out here. I mean... How depressed does he get?" A look of concern was stamped across her face.

"He won't do anything to himself, if that is what you mean." She looked down ashamedly. "You have more to worry about with me in that respect."

"Oh, Asuka, no. You've tried?" Her soft voice questioned sadly, and her eyebrows buckled threatening tears from her eyes.

"No, but I thought about it a lot, and got close to doing it once. I was taken into... 'protective custody'. They had to protect me from myself. How bad is that?" Asuka looked back to Bev, who nearly bowled her over trying to give her a hug.

She had almost forgotten how it felt. To be held by someone; someone who cared at least. She had not had a real hug in years. Bev rested her chin on Asuka's shoulder, and stroked her hair with her fingers. Asuka sniffed a couple of times, but that is the closest she came to crying. Just push it back down, you can let it out some other time. She felt some of the tightness go out of her shoulders, like she had been holding them back for a long time.

Finally, Beverly let go, and Asuka was almost sorry. It had been nice in a non-romantic way. Beverly was a friend who was trying to care for her, and wanted to sympathize with her. "Well you're closer to Shinji than I am. You need to keep an eye on him. OK?"

Asuka nodded. She knew. That would be difficult, but she could manage.

Shinji headed for the garage and drove out into the midmorning sunlight. He placed a call to the Water Desalination plant to cancel his appointment, then to the front desk at the office. He was taking a day off.

Once home, he went to the bedroom and changed out of his work clothes. He had started wearing different clothes for work and leisure not long ago, and liked it a lot. Lying on his bed he resumed reading...

I can't rightly say that she was seeing Ueda behind my back, because we were not going out. I had never told her that I loved her. I was very angry though. I was angry at Ueda, even though I was really angry at myself. That day when I saw her walk to his front door and go in, I felt like she had taken my heart. But in reality, I had cut my own heart.

It was not until several days later that I could show my face again. I had skipped several classes at school, and I was certain that I was failing. She came by once to see why I had not been around, but I could not face her. The idea of her being with Ueda... She probably did not know I was there.

Asuka got a call from Hadased several hours after Beverly left. He was wondering where Shinji was. He said that he had called to his office to see why he hadn't come for lunch and asked for him, but they said that he was taking the day off.

Asuka hung up the phone and looked at her watch. 3:30. She called down to the MAGI area and told Kensuke that she was going home for a while, and tell Genie that she would see her at the community center that night. Just before he hung up she called him back to the receiver to tell him that he was an idiot.

Ueda came to see me because he had heard that I was angry at him. Oh! How stupid and childish I was. Why couldn't I talk to people around me back then?

He was hit by a truck on his way to the campus. The man died thinking that I was angry at him. smudge He died because of me. I visited his grave so many times over the years. And even now I can smudge hardly bear to think about that day, and the days immediately afterwards. Hazuna was so devastated. She did not seem to even know what was happening around her for a while.

There were a couple of electric cars left, so she took one since they had come by the shuttle and it would not be back for another half hour. Despite the speed limit signs, which they had no one to enforce, she zoomed down the road and managed to get back in just over half the time it normally took. She unlocked the front door very quietly, and went for Shinji's bedroom.

She listened at the door, and when she did not hear anything, she knocked twice on the wood. After a few seconds with no answer, she turned the door handle and eased it open a few inches. Shinji lay on his bed, curled up, facing away from her, but she could see him breathing evenly and she breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking him asleep she closed the door again, and turned to go to her room. They were having a dance that night at the community center, and she had a new dress that she wanted to wear.

Back in Shinji's room, he turned over on to his back, and breathed deeply. It had been Asuka. He could tell by her smell. She always smelled like that, and it was wonderful. He opened the book and continued reading.

"Alright. We have a request for a slow song, so go ahead and hold your partner close." The lead guitarist smiled, and turned to say something to the rest on stage.

As the song started, Kensuke held Genie awkwardly, and told her about his dancing inadequacies for the fourteenth time. She told him to be quiet and put his hands around her waist at her lower back, then wrapped hers around his neck. He smiled, happy in the fact that this was the first time that he had ever really held a girl... no, a woman, like this. Her back was smooth and soft through the thin fabric of her dress, and he explored the depression of the small of her back with his hands.

Asuka roamed around the hall looking for Shinji, thinking he might be here by now. She had opened his door again earlier on, and called his name. She had told him she wanted him to come, and he said alright, but still he had not shown up.

She was just about to sit down again, when a boy came over to her, and asked her if she wanted to dance...

And now look at me. I am just an old man, ready to die, and I have accomplished nothing. Hazuna? I wanted to tell you, but I never did, and it made me angry. My anger killed my best friend. And my best friends death made you move far away.

I never saw her after the funeral. I tried looking for her, but I never found her. If only I had told her in the beginning, I think we could have been something.

I cannot blame her for going to be with Ueda. I cannot pretend that they might have been terribly in love too and that they could have lived that love. But I did nothing, and allowed a wonderful thing to slip through my fingers. I thought back then that the days would last forever. That I would have time to sort out my feelings. That I could arrange it so perfectly, telling her that I loved her. I realized something. Feelings don't need arranging. They are fine the way they are. Telling someone of the feeling is good enough. Finding a tactful way to express it, does not often matter.

In the end, I am just an old man. I have nothing of value, and I am going to die alone. I have thought recently about killing myself, but if I have stood the pain for 67 years, what are a few more months?

I was once a brilliant but stupid boy and I had the possibility of a wonderful life ahead of me. I threw it away because I would not confront her. And now all that is left is a man of so little worth as me. May my death come on swift wings. God bless you, Hazuna. I loved you dearly. God bless you Ueda. I missed you every day.

Takeyama Tadayoshi.

Shinji closed the book and bolted out of bed. Racing out of the house, he was overcome with vertigo, but it passed quickly enough. He had been reading most of the day, and everything felt a little surreal. He ran out across the lawn, down the sidewalk and crossed the street, running along the sidewalk. Patches of light spilled out of street lamps making little pools of brightness in the sea of dark.

He started getting a stitch in his side after several blocks when he turned left around the corner of a building, and nearly ran right into Asuka. After a particularly ungraceful aerial maneuver trying to avoid her, he managed to stand up straight.

She was beautiful. She had on a red dress that she had gotten recently but had never worn, and she was without makeup. He loved that about her. She did not adorn herself with things like that. The dress was backless and the skirt came up only to her midthigh. He realized that he was staring, but it didn't matter to him much.

"You missed the dance Shinji." Asuka said quietly trying to find something to talk about. He was kind of scaring her.

"Umm. C-can I talk to you Asuka?" His face belied none of the nervousness that his voice did. He was serious, and was trying to be direct.

Kensuke and Genie were walking back from the dance when they saw the couple standing under the light. It was Asuka and Shinji and they were speaking quietly with each other.

Genie stopped and held Kensuke so they could watch what was happening. Up ahead, they could see Asuka smile and they turned and started walking in the direction of the house.

Genie poked Kensuke and nodded in their direction. 'Lets follow and watch' the look said. Kensuke nodded.

"Asuka, I've tried to find a way to say this for a while, some way that would be right. I didn't want you to be mad at me or anything." Shinji walked stiffly, putting one foot in front of the other if only to stay with Asuka so he could get this out.

"Tell me what, Shinji?" She was certain that this time it would be another embarrassed "I like you", but she would not scold him. She promised herself she would **not**.

Shinji was quiet for a moment, and then he stopped, and put his hands on Asuka's shoulders stopping her too. He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. Only delaying the inevitable. "I love you, Asuka. I know that you probably did not want to be loved by someone like me, but there it is. You can be mean or angry at me all you want, but it won't change my feelings. I will love you regardless." He sighed, having finally told her, and it felt good to have it off his chest.

Asuka looked scared. It is amazing what three little words can mean. They can mean the difference between a lifetime of happiness and misery, of times shared around people who would die for you, people who would kill for you. They were the expression of a feeling that she could not begin to describe, because languages lacked words to describe it. The idea that someone would want to be with you that much was mind boggling. That this person wanted to devote themselves to you, and they would want you to do the same. That they wanted to spend all night trying to explain their feelings, or that they would be there for you when you wake up. They would be warm and soft, and hold you when you need it, and stand up and fight in your defense. How do you rationalize a feeling like that. Only three words.

But love was dangerous. Love was vulnerability. People exploited love. They grew tired of it. They stopped. And when they did that, it hurt more deeply than any other wound. To be betrayed by someone that you loved. And yet people still put themselves in that situation. It was worth it. The happiness that you gained from loving someone was worth the potential pain that they might cause.

At first Shinji thought she was attacking him, but she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close in to her. She was smiling into his neck, and a tear or two, just a couple, made it through her iron emotional barrier. A feeling like scooting back in your seat and relaxing after being on the edge for a long time overcame her, and the relief was wonderful.

Asuka laughed into Shinji's neck, then sniffed a little. This was the second time today that she had been held, and it felt wonderful. She could almost feel Shinji's heartbeat. Or was that her own? "I... I love you too, Shinji." He slowly put his arms around her, savoring every moment. It was delicious, like hot chocolate on a cold day. The feel of her skin and dress was so sharp on his senses. He could smell the detergent that she had washed the dress with and the soap she had used in the bath. Her hair smelled like the rose scent that was added to her shampoo.

Not far away two others watched them from the darkness. Yevgenia "Awww"ed in Kensuke's ear, and Kensuke turned to kiss her.

"I vish I had a camera. Dat is so sweet." Yevgenia pulled Kensuke back behind a fence to get them out of sight of their roommates. All this emotion was making her lovey dovey too.

The walk home was quiet, but pleasant. It seemed like every other time things were quiet between them, it was tension filled uncomfortable silence, but walking with Asuka's hands in his (!) he was content to say nothing. He had said it all, and there was nothing more for now that he needed to tell her.

Instead of going up the walk to the door, Asuka led him around to the back of the house. The backyard was an unfenced area with several trees and lush green grass that they had taken pains to keep cut and well manicured. "Here, lay down with me. I come out here sometimes and look at the sky to relax."

They lay down in the grass and watched the sky quietly. The blades of St Augustine grass were prickly but cool against their backs. Asuka looked over at Shinji a while later, and saw that he had been looking at her, probably for quite some time.

She smiled and asked him, "Shinji, what made you tell me all of a sudden like that. Why where you running?"

Shinji chewed his lip for a moment. "I didn't want to be too late. I didn't want to lose my chance. Sometimes it seems like there is time to spare, but there isn't. So I guess I just... decided I had nothing to lose really." He knew that the answer probably did not satisfy her question, but that was the best he could do.

"Well, what were you doing all day? I was worried about you. That you might, I don't know, be really depressed."

Shinji nodded slowly and watched the stars some more. "This morning when I saw them in that tank..." He frowned deeply and lowered his eyebrows. There was anger and sadness there, that he had never been able to express to anyone. "The fact that my father made Rei. He made her. He created her. He took my mother and made her different. It made me sad for her, and angry at him."

Asuka could understand that. It had defiled the memory of his mother. But even in the face of that perversion, he had become Rei's friend. Asuka reached over and took his hand. It was cool from lying in the grass.

"Anyhow, today I found a book in that office, and the guy who wrote it, Tadayoshi, he let love slip through his grip and never got it back. It was… very sad." Shinji stroked his chin. "The girl he loved went away, and his best friend died, and he blamed himself. It was so sad. At the end he wrote how he wanted to die, even though he would be alone when it happened. I decided I did not want to risk something like that happening." Asuka was being very quiet, so he looked back at her.

"Well I am glad that it helped you out. I-I am sorry that I was so... hard on you last night." Asuka looked down, and Shinji realized how much that cost her. To say sorry was like being defeated for her.

Kensuke and Yevgenia walked home hand in hand, and saw that the house was still dark. That was odd, surely Asuka and Shinji would be hack by now, right?

"Maybe they umm... were tired." Kensuke said smiling.

Genie looked at him quizzically. "Vhat do you mean?"

Kensuke chuckled. "Maybe they went to bed." Then he looked at her again. Same expression. "Maybe he is slipping her the bone." Obviously she had not become acquainted with that phrase yet. "Umm. Maybe he is getting lucky. Sex, Genie. Maybe they are having sex."

"I don't think so. And I would rather you stay out of our business." Asuka walked around the corner with a very embarrassed Shinji in tow. She looked to Genie. "I thought you guys would be back before now. What took so long?"

"Uhhm. Vell, ve got... sidetracked.."

"OK, stop right there, don't want to hear any more, K-thanks." Asuka unlocked the front door and they all went inside. Goodnight, Shinji. I will see you in the morning."

Kensuke watched Shinji, because he looked like he did not want to say good night. It was kind of funny, but he made sure that he did not even crack a smile, the consequences would be terrible.

Shinji let go of her hand and smiled finally, said goodnight. He watched Asuka's door for several seconds after she closed it then went into his own room.

"Vell that vas certainly sudden. I did not think he had it in heem to tell her like that." Genie sat on the couch, while Kensuke went to get something to eat.

"Yeah. You know I wonder if she told him that she wanted to dance with him." He plopped down on the sofa next her with a small tub of ice cream feeding her a spoonful every now and then.

"Deed hyou want me to ask Asuka tonight? I imagine she is in a good mood." Genie said raising her eyebrows.

"When ever you like. With her and Shinji together I guess it stands a better chance of passing committee." Genie giggled at that, took another bite of ice cream and got up to go to bed.

"See hyou tomorrow. Be good to Shinji. Don't ask heem mean questions, OK? You know what I mean. Red devil and all that." She looked at him sternly, and broke up in laughter, then went into her room.

Asuka was busy collecting her bathing stuff when Yevgenia came in. Genie looked like she was stoned, but Asuka knew better. She honestly did not see what Yev saw in Kensuke. He was still a dweeb.

"Hey, Asuka. Would you mind if I started staying with Kensuke?" She asked rather matter of factly.

"You don't think you ought to take your time? I mean, far be it from me to tell you what to do. I just don't want you to get hurt, ya know?" She sat down on Genies bed, next to her.

She nodded silently for a moment. "Yes, I know. I think it will be OK, though."

"Hey wait a minute. What are you going to do with Shinji? He can't stay in there with you two... doing your thing." Asuka commented sharply, waving her hand suggestively.

Yevgenia grimaced. "Well, I thought maybe, he could come in here. I mean, you guys are getting along right?" She smiled.

Asuka's nose twitched, and she was just about to give her a flat out no about Shinji changing rooms, then reconsidered. "You know what? Give me a week or two to work on him. Then I will decide. How about that?"

Genie thought about it for a minute, and nodded. "Good!"

"Now if only we could get a nice Japanese bath going on around here it would be great. There is a lot to be said for their baths." She picked up her stuff and went to the bath.

I really had not intended to post this so late in the day. I had most of it written earlier on, but work intruded at the last minute, and I did not finish it until now. One of these days I am going to get a job that pays me to sit there and write. I like doing it, and a few people seem to like it so why not?

I am going back and changing a few things in the other chapters in a day or two, soon as I can get to it. I need to make the dates in the journal entries a little sooner than a year and I need to change that first pesky MAGI reference so that it has already been brought up by that time. Can't have those two floating down there for a year can we?

I got really depressed and I was originally going to make this chapter differently. I was watching Abenobashi (an admittedly crazy and funny series) but one of the episodes (so far) is just depressing as hell. I have found that it helps to write when I am depressed. So I write less when I am at home since I am nice and happy when I am with teh Wife.

Anyhow, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I should be coming out with another in a couple days. I have a lot of demons that I need to work out...

Chewie


	5. Wise Men Indeed

Since I hate saying "Dear Diary", I will say:

Hey Diary,

You know, I think it is getting hotter. It has been pretty mild since everyone started coming back. But this has by far been the hottest day yet. It got up to 40 degrees yesterday and it is even worse today. The humidity doesn't help much. Of course we are getting quite a population base going, so they asked for volunteers to run the pool. That will give some of the younger kids something to do. I might even ask Genie to join me there tonight. We need a little cool off, too. Evil grin

We changed the rooms around the other day. Yevgenia moved in with me, and we made Shinji move in with Asuka. He protested, but it was only halfhearted. I figured he wanted to do it anyhow. Come to think of it, I don't know if they have slept together yet. Not like sleeping, but like having sex. Genie and I discussed this between us, and we are holding off a little. If it happens it happens, but it may be prudent to wait.

We are getting a tub! Not like a tub and shower, screw that. I am tired of that thing. I mean a real tub. Goodbye cramped bathing, hello comfortable bathing, onsen style! Will is helping some other guys put it in. The carpenters and architects finished the last of the houses in this division, so they are waiting until plans are finalized for a really nice looking apartment building to be approved. Shinji showed the plans to me, and it really looks nice. In the mean time, they are going to be fixing things around town and making improvements. Including a retiled bathroom with tub for us! I can't tell you how weird it is to just get right in the tub and bathe in there.

Oh, yeah. The MAGI. We made a breakthrough the other day, and I can feel it getting really close. Maybe even tomorrow. The last of the security measures (ambiguously named 'instruction 5572') is all that stands before us. Once we get that out of the way, we can start finding out what all went on in this place.

Getting too hungry to keep writing. I will get back to you later with more news.

Shinji crept out of the room that he and Asuka now shared. She had finally gone to sleep, and he was now able to go get some fresh air.

The house was quiet as he snuck through it, sharp silvery shadows stabbing through curtains and windows, illuminating small swatches of the floor. He stubbed his toe coming out of the hallway, but did not make a sound other than a soft grunt. Outside it was cool. Quite the contrast from the day. He sat in the porch swing, looking out on the mostly sleeping neighborhood. It was only 9:00 PM and most houses already had their lights off.

Things like that were funny. This community was already settling into a definite rhythm, and was developing it's own sort of culture and mores. Most people went to bed fairly early and slept a good eight hours. After all, there was no use in killing yourself trying to get everything done in one sitting right? And there were Gatherings every Sunday night that nearly everyone attended. They had started hosting them in the park since they had hit the last boom of Arrivals.

Gatherings usually had Hadased running in circles since he always wanted to present a new food or dish at each one. He had a full time staff working with him now of about 40 people. The Community Center was still being used to feed every one and Shinji had just approved plans to build a newer, bigger, and better appointed Kitchen adjoining it. The Kitchen as it was now was the most popular place to go eat; nearly everyone visited it at least once a day. Hadased's most recent Gathering dish had been some kind of Italian soup that was tomato-y, spicy and tangy.

Marie, the cellist, had performed a piece that Shinji had heard a long time ago, but could not quite recall the name of. It squirmed in his mind somewhere, lifting it's head almost to the surface sometimes so that he just almost had it, then it plunged back down again.

Which reminded him, tomorrow was the next Gathering. He had some announcements to make again, and he needed to prepare them tomorrow while he was at work. He had also promised Marie that he would play again this week. Maybe he could just make his announcements after they were done. That would work out.

The front door opened quietly, and Asuka stepped out, looking around for him. After spying him in the swing she closed the door behind her and padded over to the swing to sit next to him. He felt the heat rise in his cheeks still. They had done little more that just sit together and he was still a little embarrassed about it.

He had gotten a little better about contact though. Scooting closer to her, he put his arm around her waist. Asuka had been a persistent holder on. When they were alone or with close friends, she would be holding on to him the entire time. Sometimes he had trouble extricating himself just to go to the bathroom. But he did not have a nice way of saying anything about his discomfort to her yet. He knew she wanted to hold him, and so dealt with it.

"Whatcha doing out here, Shinji?" she asked inquisitively. Her long red hair hung down her back, cascading in rivulets and curls. She had not cut her hair since returning, and it was longer now than it had ever been. Though it was a pain to take care of such long hair, she loved having it. She loved it when Shinji ran his fingers through it.

"Oh, just thinking." A long pause. Then, "I wanted some fresh air, and I needed to get some things straight in my head." He looked over at her. It had ever been her perception that he was afraid to really look at her. At least until about three weeks ago or so. But he looked at her now, and he saw her. There were times when it seemed like you could look and _understand_ someone. Know them, through and through. Sometimes she felt that way about him, and sometimes vice versa.

"Do you think we are going to make it this time, Shinji?" She watched his eyebrows furrow, then clarified, "People I mean. Do you think we will learn to live?"

Shinji smiled. "I don't know. I have no idea." And really there was no way that he could know. It had been ingrained in humans for time immemorial that they destroy themselves and one another. This civility that they were enjoying might only last a generation or two, but he was sure that human nature would show up again.

He saw that this made Asuka grimace, and he leaned over and pecked her on the cheek on an impulse. He liked little displays of affection like that. Asuka scooted over closer to him, and put her arms around him. They kissed again, and Asuka nudged him with her nose.

"Hey, Asuka?" A pause. "Have you ever gotten the feeling that you know people here. I mean when you first meet them. That you know everything about them."

Asuka was stroking his stubble, of which he had only a little, and at his question she paused momentarily. "Well, I get little flashes sometimes, but it's kind of like a déjà vu feeling. Why do you ask?"

"Today I met a guy who just Arrived. And before I spoke to him, or shook his hand, I knew his name, his address, the phone number he used when he was in college… everything about him." Shinji shuddered a little under her hand. She could almost see the hair sticking up on the back of his neck.

"Who was he?"

"His name is Dr. James Torg. He worked for NERV at a site in South America. He seems like a good enough guy from all the stuff I know about him, but he has seen some really… bizarre things." Shinji looked at her; a worried look crossed his face.

"Like what?"

"I don't want to speak too soon, but I think that maybe Third Impact was scripted." Third Impact. There it was. He had heard Kaji term it that before. When Adam would eradicate mankind.

"I bet we can find out about that when Kensuke gets the MAGI up. He told me today that he would be done within the week he thought."

Just then the phone rang inside. Asuka let go of Shinji and he walked inside. He returned a minute later leaning out the door and speaking almost too quick to understand.

"Get some shoes on, we have to go to NERV. Kensuke is in and he needs us." Then his head disappeared back inside. Within 30 seconds they were both clothed enough to go out, and Asuka was backing the electric car they had procured out of the drive way Misato style.

Kensuke had had some pretty good days before. Once a girl at school had kissed him on his way home. He had some weird days, too. Not the least of which was the day he and Touji had nearly been squashed by a fighting Unit 01. But now he was having both at the same time.

The air in what they had come to call Central Dogma, for it was nearly Tokyo-3 Central Dogma's exact copy, had grown warm and the air conditioners were just starting to make a dent in the heat that was produced from the MAGI computers that were now running at capacity. The whirring of fans and liquid nitrogen pumps, not to mention the hum of electricity that was being conducted over trillions of circuits and nerves filled the large void of the room.

As Shinji and Asuka entered the room, Kensuke turned and regarded them with a sigh of relief. He was visibly shaken and did not look so good. Yevgenia was not too much better.

"Shinji, Asuka… Meet Rei." He gestured to the main view screen, and instead of status reports and sensor information, the head and shoulders of Rei Ayanami floated above the map of the area. The color drained from both of the newcomers' faces and it was a moment before anyone spoke.

"I have told you that is not my name." She frowned at Kensuke, then added, "I wish that you would refer to me by my proper designation."

"Uhhh. What... what is your name?" Shinji stepped forward a single pace, and cocked his head.

The Rei face turned to him and replied simply, "Melchior- 24."

Kensuke came over and took Shinji by his elbow and whispered to both he and Asuka. "When I broke through the last security protocol, it looked like it was booting normally, then everything went blank and she popped up." He nodded his head at the disembodied one floating on the screen. "She also wanted to know why she had been locked down."

"Well, what do we do from here, brainiac?" Asuka challenged to Kensuke.

"Hey, I know about command line interfaces and graphic user interfaces, not AI constructs. That is getting too far into psychology and crap for me."

"Well for now, maybe we should just talk to it." Shinji ventured a halfhearted smile when they all turned to look at him. Asuka clapped him on the back and smiled too.

"Great. You can talk to her. You did better than anyone else with the real Wonder- I mean Rei. You should do OK. I actually wonder why Kensuke couldn't just act like she was one of the stupid dating games he played all the time." Asuka laughed to herself at the angry red color Kensuke's face turned at this lat remark.

As they turned back to the screen Genie asked him what a dating game was, but he waved her off and promised he would tell her later.

"Umm, Melchior- 24. We don't know why you were locked down. We actually know very little about this place." He spoke loudly since the face was all the way across the room, but he realized belatedly that he really just needed to figure out where the microphones where and speak into them.

The face was motionless for a moment and Asuka was going to say something about a screensaver when it spoke up. "Very well, Ikari Shinji. Perhaps you can answer some other questions then." The computer _saw_ his momentary confusion and added, "Did you not think that I would know of you or your companion, Asuka? Information of you has proliferated far and wide in NERV and its family or organizations, not to mention most of civilized society."

"Like what kind of information?" Asuka stepped forward and questioned the computer.

"That will have to wait for another time. Now, please answer my questions." While the face looked down, Asuka was reminded of _The Wizard of OZ_ where the wizard attempted to frighten the four travelers through smoke and mirrors and a little technology.

Uhh, I can try I guess."

"Are the other MAGI systems down at the moment as well? I am unable to establish communications with them. In fact I cannot even detect the routers and interchanges that directed me to them when last I was in contact with them. What has become of my sister systems." She looked down at him and blinked a time or two.

"I don't... know how to say this, so I'll be blunt. As far as we know they are all gone. Offline I mean. This town we are in… The people in it are all that's left of humanity so far as we know."

"Have you looked for others?"

"Well, no. I mean, we've been a little busy, and we just kind of thought that, we would hear something, I don't know." He had gotten a bit better at speaking to people, but in front of the unnerving visage on the screen, he was crumbling.

A couple of long beeps rang out from a console nearby, while Melchior- 24 stared at them blankly. A second later, she spoke again. "I have been able to make contact with some or our satellites, but the crypto has changed on them since last I connected and I have not been given the changes."

Kensuke leaned in and whispered to Shinji, "They change the ciphers on their data transmissions every so often. I think one of the satellites uses an algorithm to come up with the new crypto routine and uploads it to the other satellites and ground computers."

The computer was waiting patiently when they returned to the conversation. Then, Asuka spoke up again. "What was this place doing? I mean, what is its purpose?"

"You do not have sufficient security privileges to have access to that information." the computer responded flatly.

Asuka uncharacteristically bit her tongue, swishing her mouth back and forth, angry and in thought. Usually security privilege was given by the security manager, but he was dead now wasn't he. Or she. Or whatever.

She was torn from her thoughts a second later when the computer added, "If I can establish your positions according to the NERV employees who are left, then perhaps that information can be made available to you."

Asuka looked at Kensuke as if to ask if he could force the computer to give up, but he looked back and shrugged. Never had he worked on something of this magnitude. He had hacked into his fathers notebook, had even penetrated upper layers of the Tokyo-3 MAGI, somehow he had managed to break through the lockdown of this MAGI, but that is where his expertise stopped. Never had he delved into bio-computing, AI, or digital personality. And he was not about to try and learn on this one. Mistakes could be costly, and when learning in computing, you often made a lot of mistakes.

"Give me a day to decipher the encryption then I can conduct reconnaissance of other areas. Also, I see that you have opened doors into restricted areas, and this I cannot allow. They will remain locked until such time as I see fit. I need to confer with my other selves. You may leave me now, while I attempt to come up to a fully operational level." This terse directive was no sooner finished than the graphic representation of its personality disappeared from the screen, which remained blank.

"Ummm." Was all Shinji could say. There was a lot to this situation that he had not grasped yet, and the finality of their dismissal was something he was accustomed to only receiving from his father. The door on the near side of the room whooshed open as if to underscore their instructions.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Genie said what they were all thinking, and hurriedly they all beat feet from the room, and ultimately out of the complex. The ride back home was quiet, and no one said a word until they were finally behind the door at the house.

Conversation went on far into the night, touching on many things related to the computer that they had awoken. At some point they had to break for food because the stomach growling had grown too distracting. That was at 0100 in the morning and Shinji was sure that they would be at it for several hours yet.

When they sat back down, Kensuke ventured some ideas he had been having. "You don't think that we might be in trouble do you? I mean that computer has access to nearly everything that makes the town run, and it could really be bad if she… it decided to strike."

"I don't think it would do that." Always better to use the indefinite pronoun "it". It may look female but that is what they chose for its look. "Besides the MAGI were designed to help ensure the survival of the people, right?"

"Well let's hope so. Do you think we should alert anyone to this? I mean they have the right to know, but I don't want to alarm them."

"Just tell them that we got it running and are trying to get the higher functions online. That is as ambiguous as you can get without straight out lying to them."

"We can tell them at tonight's Gathering."

"When it said that it was going to talk to its other selves, what did that mean?"

"I think it was talking about something Ritsuko told me once. The MAGI were programmed with thought patterns of her mother I think. And there where three aspects, each one different from the others. Maybe Caspar and Balthasar have AIs too."

Whatever they did, it would have to wait until the next day, and when they finally broke to go to bed, they saw that it was just starting to grow light outside. Shinji set the alarm clock in his room so he would get about five hours of sleep, and he and Asuka hit the sack, not even taking any time for intimacy. This most recent development was likely going to be tiresome.

Kensuke cautiously stepped into Central Dogma. Cautiously because he had been nearly 20 feet from the door when it opened, which meant that the computer knew he was coming, and opened it to let him know it knew. Such thoughts gave him gooseflesh, and the electric feeling coursing down his body was not pleasant.

Genie was coming in about 30 seconds behind him, and when she stepped into the room she found Kensuke rooted in place, staring at the screen, mouth agape. Splashed across the screen were command line instructions racing from the bottom to the top, gently rising and dipping over the contours of a face. While difficult to see, this face was softer and more gentle than the stern, no-nonsense face from the night before.

"Good morning, Kensuke and Yevgenia. My name is Balthasar-25. Let me finish what remains of this diagnostic routine that I am performing, and I will be with you." With that the face fell quiet, and Kensuke looked at Yevgenia warily. She may sound nice, but one never knew, right?

Looking at the screen a little closer he found that he could occasionally make out commands and responses. At one point a summary flashed on and he saw that it contained storage space sizes. According to the screen either Balthasar or the whole MAGI (it did not say which) still had 54 petadigits remaining in free storage. Since the bio-computing revolution, computers using such technology resorted to using a different measurement for storage space. Each bit was no longer confined to a 0 or a 1, but now could hold 32 values each. Thus each digit-bit could hold 4 bytes worth of information if you forced the computer to use binary, hundreds and thousands of times more if you allowed it to use all 32 values. Thus the digit standard was born. His old computer at home had a 400 tera_byte_ flash memory drive, and this thing had 54_petadigits!_ The storage space was astronomical in size. This was one advantage to using nerve tissue.

As this realization came to him, the last of the text scrolled up the screen, and the face behind it came into better focus. It was of course Rei, smiling this time. He could see why Shinji kind of liked Rei. When she smiled she was quite pretty.

"What can I do for you today?" Balthasar asked cheerily.

"Uh." He looked at Genie. She looked blankly back at him. "Umm, well, we really wanted to see if you had restored yourself."

The face on screen smiled even wider and spoke quietly, "You wanted to see what had become of the terse AI from last night." Balthasar chuckled softly. "Well, she is resting so to speak. It takes a lot of energy to restore dormant systems and access portions of the tissue that have been unused for so long. I must say, that I am getting a bit tired myself."

"Umm, well how are you doing, operationally?" Yevgenia asked.

"You will be happy to know that I have found only three bad sectors, and the data they contained can be extracted and relocated. At the moment I can only risk running at approximately 75 percent of my total processing speed. We had to jettison the liquid nitrogen that was standing in the coolant system for so long, and there is not enough to circulate and cool us sufficiently." Then almost as an afterthought, "I almost forgot. I am nearly naked here!" The near monolithic structure that was Balthasar, which had been raised to allow direct access, started sinking back into its normal operating position in the floor.

"Core logic and higher cognitive functions are available, but besides conversation, I cannot aid you at the moment. Melchior made it explicitly apparent that you were uncleared for any but the most basic functions, even if you did allow us to come back online."

Kensuke frowned at this. If they did not get into the MAGI, they could not gain much more of use from this base. Not to mention explore it any further.

"Oh, now don't worry. I am sure it will all turn out well." The face smiled once again.

Yevgenia leaned close and whispered, "She sounds just like my mother did,"

Shinji sat on the corner of his desk as the last of six men and women filed into the room. This would be quick and informal. He just needed a moment of their time.

"Sorry I had to call this meeting to start early on such short notice, but it couldn't be helped. We managed to bring down the last of the lock down on the MAGI last night. We may need several days before we can start really using the system, though. It takes a while to get something as complex and sophisticated as the MAGI working. Rest assured, it will not be much longer."

Shinji paused for a breath or two. He did not like telling half truths, but he also did not like the thought of people seeing their leadership as bumbling or foolish, and certainly wanted to avoid some kind of panic.

"Which brings up another item. We think that perhaps we can make contact with some of the satellites that are still passing overhead, and use them to check in on other parts of the world. If there are any other survivors, it would be good to know about them, and get in touch with them."

Will looked at him for a moment and asked, "Are you going to say anything about this at the Gathering tonight?"

"I'll be announcing about the MAGI, but I don't know about satellite recon. I don't want to get peoples hopes up."

The rest of the meeting went as planned. The foreman in charge of construction went over plans with Hadased for the new Kitchen.

Will made a proposal for opening a plant nearby that had not been used yet. This particular plant was responsible for the considerable waste handling needs of greater Hong Kong. It was what was called a thermal depolymerization reprocessing facility. Taking waste in and heating it under pressure would result in three products. Light oil, water, and a mixture of fertilizers and minerals but it really only worked with organic and plastic waste.

Diane updated them on progress being made for education in the community. There where a couple of schools, complete with everything needed to teach except for English text books. Nearly everything, with exception of some books and magazines in the library, where written in Chinese. They could reasonably expect to have everything ready by the fall when the first class would be starting.

A few more items to talk about, then the meeting was over. Asuka was waiting for Shinji when he came out. She indicated that she had only been waiting for a few minutes when he apologized for taking so long.

Outside the sun was shining as it nearly always was, and they walked out to the parking lot adjacent to the building. They chatted amiably, not really wanting to get down to the business of the MAGI computers. They had never expected it to be inhabited by these AI. Certainly there was a level of intelligence inherent to the computers what with the thought pattern transfer technology in place and such, but then, that personality can't surface very easily when using a command line interface can it? With the addition of a graphic front for the personality and the ability for the computer to communicate with the user unhindered, it was more like speaking to a person, albeit a sometimes curt and unfriendly one.

They were surprised to say the least when they walked into Central Dogma and found Kensuke and Genie nearly rolling on the floor in laughter at something the computer had just told them. It took a moment for the two of them to get under control, while the computer looked on.

Finally the two of them had brushed themselves off and greeted Shinji and Asuka. It turned out that they were speaking at the moment to Caspar- 9. The same Rei face was looking down to them from the screen as before.

Kensuke filled them in on some of what had been going on. Caspar was undoubtedly the womanly aspect of the MAGI. She had had some success with the algorithmic deciphering process. Perhaps by late that evening, it would be finished and she could make 1st level contact with the overhead satellite network.

They had been trying to dig some kind of information out of her about the two children floating in the tank many levels below them, but about this and nearly anything that had to do with it, she was quite tight lipped. More recently they had taken to telling jokes, and the MAGI was undoubtedly chocked full of them. Many of them quite dirty, but very funny.

"Caspar?" Shinji ventured.

"Yes, Ikari Shinji."

"The route to the power plant has been sealed off due to your… security concerns. Are you capable of running it without assistance? We just don't want to lose power for any reason."

"I have access to 97 percent of the functionality of the power plant. The only controls that are beyond me are the manual overrides and hand operated control rod ejectors."

"OK, good, thank you." The face smiled and nodded once. Shinji turned to Kensuke. "Are you and Genie coming to the Gathering tonight?"

"Of course. It'd be a bit conspicuous if we were absent, I think." Genie nodded along with this, then Kensuke added, "I think the MAGI can take care of themselves; they can lock down access to the complex. Which reminds me, Melchior connected with the phone switchboard and can call if they need us. Caspar thought it was hilarious to start making prank calls on us. Undoubtedly the womanly aspect is a bit of a comedian…" He looked side long at the computer screen, where the Rei face smirked back.

Shinji and Asuka had a laugh at that. Certainly the later two personalities were friendlier than Melchior. A few minutes later, they all left together, leaving behind the soft beeping, whirring and humming of the massive computer for the more enjoyable company of people and community.

Before heading out, they made a quick stop at the house to change out of their work clothes, coveralls for Yevgenia and Kensuke and more or less casual business attire for some easy going t-shirt and jeans or shorts. Then they left the house walking towards the community center. It was around 5:30 and there were a lot of people headed that way as well.

Several people joined them at different points of the walk, and they continued on, talking and joking around. As they neared the community center, they heard music pouring out of the open doors and windows. Several people in back were ferrying sacks of food staples into the back of the Kitchen. The large open building loomed before them, then they were inside. The carpenters had been busy lately, as there were now several hundred wooden picnic tables set up with the long axis pointing at the stage. This way everyone could watch and eat, and converse in comfort.

Hadased hurried over from the doorway to the Kitchen where he had been when he saw Shinji. Shinji asked about what kind of food they would have tonight (Thai) and if there was anything special planned ("there is" he said). Kensuke and Yevgenia broke away and went to speak with Beverly who was hanging out at one of the middle tables. People were filing into the building in droves, conversing and having fun. It was funny to watch the cliques form and people congregate together and socialize. With the effective erasure of humanity and the resurgence thereafter, many people who had been very extreme had become more moderate for some reason. In one corner a group in their late teens who had once likely been some kind of skinhead gang, covered with tattoos and peircings where talking to several conservative looking couples. The once-skinheads were all dressed in presentable attire with shirts tucked in, belts, and combed hair. Coming into a new community that embraced wide ranging social functions helped people change their way of socializing to a more acceptable form.

The whole thing really kicked off at around 6:30. That is when the open mike was really open. That is also when the food was served. The first person on stage was a stand-up comedy act. The first dishes served where a stir-fried chicken in peanut sauce. People cheered for both. The stand-up guy was well known and liked and he often had people laughing nearly uncontrollably, and Hadased's peanut sauce was spicy and the stuff of legends. There was also a huge wooden tub of white rice, several other Thai selections, salad stuff, homemade chips, drinks, and on and on.

The line stretched quite a ways around the room, but it moved quickly on both sides of the table, everyone eager to get back to their table and eat some of the great food. The comic on stage was telling about how in the old world they needed warnings on everything because people could not think for themselves back then. Maybe it would be different now. He told about the warning he saw on a stick of deodorant warning not to eat it, the insect repellant that was for external use only, and the fire extinguisher that was not to be used underwater.

Between acts the conversation picked up again. Most did not know why they were so eager to be close to others, but Shinji had figured it out a while back. While they had made the conscious effort to come back to the world they knew, they missed something from their ethereal existence. It was the closeness. It was forced on them, and many of them did not really like being totally exposed to others, but they did enjoy the company of other people.

After the comic, the bluegrass players made an appearance this time with several new players, one on spoons, one on a jug, and the other on a washboard. As absurd as these instruments seemed to everyone who had not experienced the music before, they were surprised that it complimented the banjo and other accompaniment.

Hadased introduced a creation of his own. It was a beef dish from what Shinji could see, with very thin strips of the meat and various vegetables: peppers, onions, water chestnuts, and leeks among them with what smelled like his peanut sauce. His (world famous) fried rice followed it out, and there was a new rush to the serving table for a plate full of this new yummyness.

A man on stage started singing a Charlie Rich song "The Most Beautiful Girl" (which he sang on occasion by request), and he was followed by a young French girl who sang a song in French that he did not know.

Asuka had managed to tickle him three times between eating and watching and listening to the stage. She had also held him close and kissed him several times. He loved the attention, but still had not gotten used to such public displays. It was almost a relief when Marie stopped by the table and collected him to go play on stage.

A man and wife team were finishing up singing several songs that they had written that had a sort of American folk-ish quality to them. As before, Marie had supplied a tuned cello for him.

"How are you at sight reading?" She asked as she passed him some sheet music. Sight reading was playing a piece of music from sheet the first time you had seen it.

"Ohh. Well I am OK. So long as it is not too hard." He saw that this was a Chopin piece that he had not seen or heard before. It was also accompanied by a violin. Hearing steps behind he turned and found a deviously grinning Asuka advancing on him.

"Hey, now what is this?" He looked to Marie and saw that she was not holding her cello, but instead had a viola. He had been had. This had started out to be a little competition with Marie with a cello, and now it was an impromptu Chopin presentation.

"You didn't think that you could get off just showing how well you could play from memory did you, Shinji?" Asuka said smiling. She kissed him, and moved past him, climbing the steps to the stage, but hung back behind the curtain.

He and Marie followed. He would have tried to put up an argument, but the two singers where coming down right then, and they wished him a quick break-a-leg then he was up in front of everyone, ready to make a fool of himself.

Asuka had already seated herself, and she busied herself with drawing the bow across several strings producing shaky notes at first, then strengthened definite notes. Once she was satisfied, she held the instrument in her lap, waiting for the others.

Shinji stepped up to the microphone, and addressed the crowd. "Good evening, all. We have a… " he almost grumbled a little as he looked sidelong towards the girls behind him "surprise treat for you tonight. I hope you enjoy it."

He went to his chair and plucked at a couple of the strings testing them, then drew the already rosined bow across them experimentally. The music stand in front of him held the music, and a man that he swore he knew, Jimmy, Jamie, Johnny… something like that, stood ready to turn the pages, as did someone for Asuka. Marie must have the piece memorized because she did not bother with the sheet music.

According to the cover this was the first movement, and it only lasted three and a half minutes. That was good, less time for him to mess up. He saw Marie smiling out of the corner of his eye, and he wondered if she enjoyed ruining people's lives this way. Well, maybe a little melodramatic, but it was still not to his liking.

Marie ticked off two four counts to indicate she was ready, and started playing. Shinji had rests for the first few measures, and took this time to look ahead and get a feel for his first few playing measures. It was slow, and mostly lower octaves, and that was good. Higher notes were more difficult for him to play the further up the register they went.

He had heard of this particular piece before. It was one of the last Chopin had written, and was very somber and slow as opposed to some of his more forceful works earlier on. But enough of that, it was coming up on his and Asuka's entrance, and there was no more time for thinking.

Usually cello plays a more base role, providing undercurrent to music, and some counterpoint to the tune. It was generally an easy part to play: long notes, very repetitious, not much to it, but there were pieces out there that used it in a more leading way, so that it was one of the main story-telling instruments of the piece. Such was the case this time.

The cello portion was played loudly, leaving the other two instruments in the background. The deep rich notes flowing out of the cello reminded many of the older listeners of the fall. Orange and brown leaves shuffling loose of the tree that had borne them all year long to float to the ground. Morning dews and frosts that would leave the morning crisp and clear, or fogs that would soften it and smooth the hard edges.

Others where reminded of time spent at home as kids, when everything was alright, and worries where confined to who liked who, and what adventure would the next day bring.

Unfortunately, neither of these where what Shinji felt from it. It was a sad song, full of regret and longing, like someone had made a grave mistake and realized it would follow them for the rest of their life. The dread and shame that a person would feel from something like that, about accurately described the song for him. Even more so than those pieces that were specifically meant to be sad.

Little did he know that Marie had put the second and third movements in the folder with the first. When it changed over to the next movement, the pace picked up a bit, and took on a slightly more adventurous tone, even sounding happy in some portions where the viola or violin came to the foreground of the music. It picked up again in the third movement and again halfway through the third. By the end of the piece he was playing furiously, just keeping up with the tempo of the music. His hands where sweating, and he was afraid the bow would slip from his hand and he would ruin the show, but he made it to the end, playing the final crescendo perfectly.

He went into the piece at least a little angry at Marie for doing this to him, and finished with a sense of achievement and satisfaction. He felt good to have done it, and without noticeable mistake for those unused to listening for minute faults in music.

The applause was well received, by his other two players. He saw them both smiling when he looked over at them. Asuka especially. He loved that smile, and he saw it more often nowadays than he did before.

Standing they took a bow, and Marie and Asuka went off stage. Shinji laid the cello in front of his chair, and stepped up to the microphone, ready to give his announcements.

"Before I give the stage back over, I just had some announcements to make." He waited for everyone to get adjusted, then continued. "First, we have finalized plans for a new, larger Kitchen to be built. As it is now, Mr. Hadased is having trouble feeding everyone in the cramped space that he has to work with. We anticipate it will be finished about a month after we have the ground breaking ceremony, which should be in a couple of days.

"Second, we got some really great news from the hospital the other day, and I imagine many of you know of it already. Mr. and Mrs. Danneb are the proud parents of a little baby girl. Our first birth! They have named her Jennifer, and she weighs in at a healthy 8 pounds, 7 ounces.

"Any of you who need modification of some kind to your house or work area, please submit the modification details on the forms provided on the community bulletin board at the town hall.

"Finally we have managed to bring the MAGI supercomputers online. There are still some final procedures that we have to take care of before it is fully operational. Just, please bear with us, while we take care of this last bit. I think that in the end, the computers will be a big help to us. Do I have any questions?" He waited for a moment and when it was clear that there where none, "OK, enjoy the rest of the evening!"

As he was walking to the steps on stage-left, his cell-phone rang and well as three others in the Gathering hall. It was the MAGI, there was no doubt. The soft voice on the other end spoke at once. "I think that you need to come and see this." The phone hung up, and he looked and saw the others looking back at him.

Well that about does it for this installment. I hope you enjoyed it, and don't worry there will be another along "shortly". BTW, I was just wondering, is this story just not as "good" as Life After Eva or was it just a matter of the timing when it was started or what? My other got lotsa reviews, but this one only seems to have a few reviewing readers. Not complaining, just making an observation and wondering. Also, I have only gotten a couple of suggestions for town names, so I am going to wait another week, then decide. Thanks for your support!

Chewie


	6. Recon

Dr. Lisa Soerenson

Psychiatry Log (audio recording)

I have started getting worried about the two ex-pilots, Shinji and Asuka. After the first couple of sessions with each of them, I started probing a little into their past, specifically how they felt about their position as pilots. Shinji responded with a fairly ambiguous answer, maybe even a little on the negative side. Asuka was something of a mystery though. From what I heard from Shinji, she was a good pilot who loved the attention that such a position demanded. But she indicated very strongly that she did not like the idea of piloting. Having not worked in any kind of project on the level as the Evangelion Project, I can only conjecture that something in the recent past traumatized her to such an extent that she would not subject herself to any more "syncing" with an Eva.

I am still unclear exactly what this consisted of. Undoubtedly it had something to do with the consciousness of the pilot making contact with the latent mind of the Evangelion (an admittedly alien creature that had been extensively modified to fulfill the role of large scale battle platform). If this is true, then there is also the very likely prospect that in such contact, the mind is contaminated or traumatized. Otherwise, the trauma to Asuka would be of an event-oriented nature (i.e. something(s) that she experienced while piloting where of a traumatic nature).

It appears that these children, young adults some might say, are attempting to put the past behind them and immerse themselves in work. While this is a legitimate way of dealing with problems, I don't think that it's what would be best for them at this point. There are obvious signs that they may be romantically involved with each other, but there are other signs that some of their problems have to do with each other. Unfortunately pairs such as they often end up hurting their relationship by laying bare their problems. Perhaps a joint session is in order. A mediator could help bring these things to light gently.

On another note, I must say that this is a lot more gratifying the way this is working out. I remember stressing over my schedule every day, trying to fit a whole slough of people in, and work around lunch, and attend meetings and worry about payment and such. No such worries in a community this size. And with the absence of real money, or the need to have it, I can focus on what I need to. With the people here, there seems to be a sense of drive towards self-improvement. I hate to be the pessimist here, but it is likely that it will only last for a short time. History has pretty well proven the need for money and separation of castes. Without such social structuring it is nearly impossible to function since no one would perform the less attractive jobs. But, maybe I will be proven wrong. Maybe coming back from this "Complementation" is what people needed to work with each other, instead of destroying each other.

Stop recording.

Audible repetitive beeping then a screech

Stop recording!

Pause

Stop recording, damn it! That's the end of the log, you stupid!...

The clatter of running footsteps rang down the otherwise empty corridors of the NERV complex. Shinji, Asuka, Kensuke, and Yevgenia raced headlong down hallway after hallway towards the command center where they hoped to see the outcome of the satellite imagery reconnaissance that they had been waiting for. Specifically they wanted to know if there were any others out there who had survived.

The hollow thuds of their feet and the whooshing of their collective breaths as they turned yet another corner and passed by another ten or fifteen closed and presumably locked doors echoed off of the polished metal walls and floor. Then up ahead the door to the bridge appeared. It was much the same as any other door except that it had warning signs threatening severe punishment if anyone who did not have proper authorization decided to enter. As the door whispered open anticipating their arrival, (most likely the doing of the resident AI in the MAGI computer system) they finally started slowing, finally coming to a fast walk as the entered the cavernous room.

The portion of the AI that identified itself as Melchior floated on the holo-display. She looked… tense, if that was possible. Then for whatever reason, she cleared her throat.

"I have not yet finished a complete analysis of the entire surface. That said, this should be taken with a grain of salt, albeit a very small one." she stated flatly. Shinji felt the knot in his stomach grow tighter and it almost felt like it had fallen to his feet; the sinking feeling was just like it was upon the dawning of realization that he experienced so many times as an Eva pilot.

The disembodied head moved to the side, and a large image of the earth's surface showed up on screen. This particular portion had a large body of water, most likely an ocean, off to one side, forests and mountains covering much of the landscape. And in the middle, a huge scorched, somewhat blackened area, with sections of amorphous grey blotches.

"This was Mexico City. As of last census, 28 million inhabitants. Now it is a couple hundred square kilometers of ruin. I have confirmed that the smaller black dots spread throughout the image are in fact villages and towns. Every population center that I have analyzed from community to metropolis has been similarly destroyed. Every other NERV office, base, and research center has also been obliterated."

The echoes of the voice faded and left the room in near silence. The idea that they were entirely alone on the Earth took a moment to sink in.

"On the bright side, that means that I can now give the two of you", she looked at Shinji and Asuka, "security privileges. Seeing as how Asuka has been in the employ of NERV longer than Shinji, she will have seniority over him."

Asuka's face clouded over for a moment, then it got red. "The bright side? The BRIGHT side? How is that bright? Compared to what you first told us that qualifies as just light enough to see! We are talking about billions of people dead, or completed, ascended, transmogrified whatever the hell you want to call it. There is nothing bright about that." The image of Rei on the screen shrank back, obviously not used to being on the receiving end of Asuka's wrath.

"That was not intended as a joke or to diminish their loss of life. I just wanted to try and bring a positive aspect of it forward. Regardless, these are the facts, or as near to absolute facts that I can provide."

Kensuke hugged Genie, and Shinji put his hand on Asuka's shoulder partially just to have some contact and partially to keep her from continued berating the MAGI. She turned and held his hand. Looking at her, Shinji could tell that the wheels in her head were turning, and very quickly.

"What will we tell the people? I mean…" Shinji trailed off when he could not think of a different way to put it. The incredible information, something that deep down he had known all along, was just so much to assimilate.

Asuka spoke up. "I think they have known for some time. But we will tell them the truth, and they will have to deal with that. I am sure that they don't want us lying to them." She hugged him, sensing that he needed it. "When that is done, we need to start thinking about what we are going to do with this place."

Asuka finally released Shinji and stepped back to take a look back at the MAGI projection in front of them. The face of Rei, her soft blue hair longer than it was on her physical body, red eyes inquisitively looking back at her; it hung in the air waiting for them to all finish. She looked over and saw Genie patting Kensuke on the back, his face was on her shoulder. She sighed quietly and spoke to Melchior, "OK, now that we can be reasonably assured of our status as the last remaining 'employees' of NERV, can you shed a little light on the operation of this… place, this facility?"

Shinji was about to bring up Dr. Torg but thought better of it. They needed to know about this NERV complex and what it had been doing.

"Many of the technologies that where created at some of the other NERV facilities where brought here to refine. Case in point, my AI architecture. Dr. Akagi Naoko wrote the original AI and personality based on her own, effectively isolating and containing the three distinct portions of herself as she was known by those around her. I am the incarnation of her as a scientist and I embody what co-workers perceived of her. The other two with me are incarnations of her as a woman and as a mother. Balthasar was one of the most difficult for her to finish since it was the perceptions of only one person that she was working on, and not a collection or group of people. Regardless the technology was brought here, and was combined with other technologies, resulting in what you see before you."

Kensuke stepped forward a bit, "What do you mean other technologies?"

"As I am sure that Shinji is aware", Asuka looked at Shinji momentarily, " the original Ayanami Rei was actually the original Rei soul that was transferred to an empty cloned body. The unused bodies where used in the creation of what was known as the dummy plugs used in the Evangelion Humanoid Combat Platform. The technology of soul transference was refined here by allowing a copy of her soul to be digitized and incorporated into the MAGI operating system."

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me that you have Rei, for all intents and purposes Rei's consciousness in there?" Asuka queried almost in an accusatory tone.

"To expand on that, I have Ayanami Rei's soul 'in here'. Consciousness is only a portion of what a soul is capable of. Regardless, I once housed the soul of Nagisa Kaoru as well. Approximately three months before I was put under lockdown, a group of MAGI systems where uploaded with his soul and where shipped to Germany. There 'he' led the operation of breaking through defensive programs at the Tokyo-3 NERV facility, with myself as backup. We where instructed that this was a coordinated test to assess any weaknesses in their security systems. I now suspect something quite different was amiss."

"That would account for the two bodies in the LCL." Shinji added.

"Precisely. I imagine that you want to restore Ayanami Rei to what you think of as her former self. Unfortunately I can tell you that such an operation is almost definitely doomed to failure. The odds of successfully isolating her soul and re-integrating it with her body are 4171 to 1 against."

"Why?" Asuka asked shortly. Shinji looked at her with more than a little surprise on his face. Asuka as he had known her when they were pilots was not prone to caring about Rei at all. Many times he wondered if Asuka would do anything to save Rei's life if it where in danger.

The face flickered and fell away, replaced by the same face only this time, Balthasar flashed to the bottom right and then disappeared.

"The incorporation of her soul into our system distributes it throughout the programming. It would take considerable effort on both our part and yours to reassemble it. After that, one does not just wish the soul back into the body. When bodies are naturally given a soul as we know it, it is a beautiful thing and is largely without mishap. These are unborn children that I speak of. They slowly receive it, and continue to do so even after birth, but more on that later. When humans try to put a soul into a body it is a violent unnatural process. And often the soul, through no fault of its owner, does not want to go."

Asuka massaged her temples. She made a mental note to ask Shinji about what he knew about the dummy plugs when she got the chance. "So, insofar as our security privileges, what are your findings? Can we move freely through the complex again?"

"The determination has been made that you are of high enough privilege given the remaining personnel, including Dr. Torg", the surprise on Asuka's face was enough to make Caspar laugh behind the scenes, " that you may be admitted to the majority of the facility. The only reason that portions are still off limits is for safety reasons."

"Is there a map of this place? We've got no idea how big it is." Kensuke chimed in.

"Sure." A large map replaced the face. As Balthasar read off locations of interest, they where highlighted on the map. "There are 600 units of single occupant living quarters, three cafeterias with adjoining kitchens, four medical bays, a small hospital,"

"No, thanks", interjected Asuka.

"17 research labs each devoted to a particular cross-section of the projects, two cages—"

"Wait, cages? Like Evangelion holding cages?" Asuka almost shouted. Shinji could not tell if Asuka was happy at the possibility of Eva piloting or angered about it. Considering her last experience at the hands of the Mass Production series of Evangelions, he figured she was not too pleased.

"Correct. At the moment both are occupied with portions of two Units that are still under construction."

Asuka swished her mouth back and forth in thought. "And this was just starting to be a good evening, too. How far along are they? Almost finished? What where they going to be used for?"

"Both are currently at 80 of completion. They were originally intended to be combat units. Shortly before the lockdown there was talk of converting them to domestic missions."

"Meaning?" Asuka was just a little testy about the issue.

"There where feasibility simulations being run for building demolition and construction application. No final results are on file."

Doubtfully, Asuka backed off and sighed again. She saw Shinji looking at her concerned, but she waved his concern away and told him it was alright. She just wanted to go back home. Kensuke agreed as did Yevgenia. It was closing on 10:00 PM and they had a long day ahead.

Sensing the impending departure, the computer decided it was for the best. Humans for all their strengths needed a great deal of rest. "Perhaps we can continue tomorrow. I am sure you are all tired. Go get some rest."

The door leading out of Central Dogma whooshed open again, inviting them to leave.

It was raining as they left the complex, driving slowly along the wet streets. Back at home the mood was sullen, and the white noise of the rain hitting the roof in the background did not help to ease the tension.

The people who had been working at that complex, living in these homes, and raising families in this community before Third Impact had been conducting experiments that should never have been done. They had delved into the places that humans had no business going. There were religious sects all over the world that had thought that God had smote Antarctica specifically because of mankind's dabbling in genetic engineering. I had happened not long after the completion of the Human Genome project after all.

They had taken something as precious as the soul of a human, manufactured or not, it makes no difference, and put it into a machine. And now they are told that to reverse the project may be impossible. Shinji beat his closed fist against the hardwood table several times while they were sitting there thinking about all of it. His anger had only come after they left NERV.

"So." Kensuke broke the un-talkative atmosphere. "Um, what do we do now?"

"I think we should get a team of people together and look through the place. We need to know how much of a mess we need to clean up, right?" Yevgenia replied looking to the others for approval.

"Right. We search that place top to bottom and uncover all the secrets. Of course, what we do with those secrets we will have to decide." She sighed. "I'm getting tired, real tired of all the secrets." Asuka spoke in response. Shinji could hear the weariness in her voice. She had been lied to most of her life. About her mother, about Eva, and about the real objective for defeating the Angels. They had not done it for survival. That was just a bonus. It just happened to fit in with their plans. They just needed the right conditions to instigate the End.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I just want to go to bed." Shinji said finally un-furrowing his eyebrows.

"Yeah, a few hours in the prone position wouldn't hurt." Kensuke added as they all got up from the table, and started heading to their respective rooms. Shinji looked at him because of the odd statement and smiled a little.

"No telling what tomorrow will bring, huh?" Genie offered just before she closed the door to her and Kensuke's bedroom behind them.

"Nope." Asuka said under her breath. Shinji was already peeling off clothes when she entered the room. He must have starting hitting a growth spurt, she noted, since he was getting a bit taller, and the physical work he had been doing lately had caused him to gain some muscle and filled him out a little better than the thin, lanky boy she had known.

Soon the lights went out and they where both lying in the dark, only a few inches between them. Asuka whispered his name in the dark and he responded equally softly. She wanted to spoon a little. He drew up behind her, pressing his chest against her back, and bent at the waist, moving his legs up, putting one between hers, and wrapped his free arm around her waist. She was warm, and her hair smelled of some sweet fruit-essence-laden shampoo that she used. The skin under his hand was soft, and had just a few of the thin clear downy hairs that cover otherwise bare skin. With his ear to her back, he listened to the inhale of each breath, punctuated by heartbeats, then that was covered by the exhale. Asuka put her hand on his, and squeezed softly, and he knew only darkness after that.

The next morning dawned clear, and with the birds singing it almost seemed like it was out of a movie. Little droplets of rain still hung from leaves and covered the grass, making the light sparkle like someone had thrown handfuls of diamonds everywhere. Shinji was just awakening to this fact when he heard a loud "SHIT!" issue from the bathroom.

"Uhh, Asuka? What's wrong?" He could see light coming from under the door, and heard the fan running inside.

"Do you think you could get me a bar of soap, Shinji? This one is as good as gone."

"Yup. I can do that." In a plastic bag, tucked in a box, squeezed between luggage pieces in a closet that opened into the hallway, Shinji had seen some bath soap a few days before. Quickly he retrieved it, and returned to the bathroom. He was just about to knock when the door opened to reveal an almost entirely naked Asuka, who promptly pulled him in and closed the door.

"You where letting all of the heat out." She explained. Of course, it wasn't much different in temperature in here. Not that Shinji would have known the difference anyhow; he was too busy with the situation at hand. "Time for your morning shower, Shinji. Anything special you want to do this morning? Heh heh heh."

"Breakfast is served! Come on you guys. Didn't cook this for nothin'!" Kensuke yelled down the hall. A few moments later, Asuka and Shinji both exited, both with wet hair. Both where also smiling happily. The day was off to a good start.

"Today for breakfast is standard fare. Scrambled eggs, ham, toast, and a Pop-Tart each." Kensuke indicated the table and food like a magician would indicate the full grown Bengal Tiger he just pulled from some ladies ear.

"Why the hell do we always have Pop-Tarts when you cook? Those things are worthless." Asuka said disgustedly. She picked hers up and broke it open. "Yechh. Strawberry flavored. Mind you, I like strawberries, but that does not taste like strawberries." She muttered something about 'someone's freakish idea of what strawberries are like'.

Shinji ate quietly while Kensuke and Yevgenia talked to each other about the MAGI. Asuka grumbled about the "stupid Pop-Tart" a little more, but was otherwise silent as well. They needed to figure out what they wanted to do with the technology that was stored in the NERV facility. Today would give her a chance to take inventory of that. The danger in using such technology along with the feasibility would determine if they would employ any of it in some fashion. At the moment, the Eva: Civil Engineering Model (she thought that name kind of funny) would likely never make it out of the facility. Those things were too dangerous, and unless she or Shinji were to use it (assuming it did not go berserk or something) it would take forever to train someone in it and for them to use it with any kind of precision, not to mention the danger of someone previously untrained attempting to activate it.

The whole pumping-the-soul-back-into-Wonder—Rei was another item that weighed heavily on her mind. Maybe time had changed her mind about the blue haired girl. It was strange, but she did not feel the same anger toward her now as she did then. Shinji had explained to her a lot of things about Rei; that she was a creation of his fathers, that she was one of many, many clones, and that she was made in the image of his mother, Yui.

Asuka supposed she felt sorry for her. There was little that Rei could have done to change who she was. And having a father like Gendou seemed to mess people up. She looked at Shinji who was carefully eating his breakfast in total silence.

"Is that OK with you, Asuka?"

"Huh?" Asuka looked up blankly to see Kensuke and Genie looking at her. "Oh, Um I'm sorry I didn't hear what you where talking about."

"I thought I might go by the Kitchen today at lunch as ask for volunteers for searching through the facility. There is a lot of ground to cover, and we can't do it with just the four of us, and I think Shinji has meetings and stuff today."

Shinji looked at his watch and smacked his head. "Yeah I do, and I have to get going, right now." Asuka raised her eyebrows and smiled. A bit unlike Shinji to be late for something, but it happens to everyone occasionally.

While Shinji quickly got dressed for work, the others finished eating. By the time they where ready for work, Shinji was already gone, having given Asuka a peck on the cheek before he bolted out the door.

At Central Dogma, Balthasar was waiting for them. For the next two hours they obtained level by level maps of the research and development, maintenance, and fabrication areas. These areas where of great importance to them since, if there was something dangerous down there, they would be best off knowing about it. And if there was something useful, they could employ it somehow.

They spent a few minutes looking at the tank with Rei and Kaoru floating in it. Asuka wondered what they would do with Kaoru if the process with Rei worked. They had no soul for him. She supposed he was gone forever. Shinji has told her about Kaoru on several occasions, but each time he withdrew after a short while and would not talk for the rest of the day. It was sad to see the look of despair on his face from talking about someone who obviously meant so much to him.

On their way to the Kitchen, Asuka stopped off at an electronics store not far away and got some two-way radios. The phones in the complex worked, but with teams making their way through the facility, there was no way to call a specific team with any kind of accuracy. Fortunately there where radio re-transmitters all over the base, which would allow them to speak with each other at any time.

By the time they got to the Kitchen, lunch was in full swing. Presently, Shinji was on stage, asking for volunteers to help on the finishing touches of the latest batch of houses; mostly interior decorators and finishers. When he saw her, the worried look on his face brightened, and he even smiled.

It was good, to Asuka, to see him smile. For someone who puts the weight of the world on his own shoulders, Shinji bore it alright most of the time. He still silently blamed himself for the unaccounted for people. Those who did not come back where "dead". Asuka had not quite reconciled that point. She and Shinji and everyone who had come back had been as dead as everyone else as well, right? They had just willed themselves back. She still didn't see why she had appeared with Shinji on the beach, however.

Asuka met Shinji on the stairs as he was coming down. He had gotten his volunteers, some of whom where already heading for a job foreman that Shinji had indicated earlier.

"Hey, Asuka, Kensuke. What are you guys, doing here?"

"Figured we could get the complex thoroughly searched easier if we got a group to help us. Really we just need to get an idea of what all was going on just before it got interrupted. The MAGI are not really a lot of help. I get the feeling that they are sugar coating everything or dumbing it down 'so us kids can understand it'."

"I guess that's not surprising, really. Asuka, can we talk for a minute when you are done on stage?" Shinji looked a little worried… or concerned. Asuka nodded and smiled at him, then she continued up the steps.

Her message was short and to the point. "OK, people. We need volunteers. We have finally gotten access to the entirety of the NERV facility, and we need people to help us with a systematic examination of the place to see what we have. Assets, liabilities, and everything in between. Anyone interested, meet up with myself or Kensuke outside in 45 minutes." That would give them enough time to eat (and boy did it smell good!) and socialize a little. She met Shinji's eyes as she came down and they walked a few steps away from the tables, close to the outside wall.

"Asuka, what is the atomic weight of gold?" Shinji said frowning a little.

"67. Why?"

"How did you know that?"

"Because I studied it in college, why else?"

"OK. What is the medical term for the end of the elbow?"

"Uh, olecranon process?"

"Right. Now, how did you know that?"

Asuka scratched her head for a second. She had never been good at physiology. She could not remember any of THAT from college. She didn't know how she knew, she just knew. All she could offer Shinji, however, was a shrug.

"I'll tell you what I think. I was sitting at my desk earlier, and I was trying to remember something, and I had a funny thought about skydiving. It was a memory. But I have never been skydiving. The memory was of someone doing what is called a HALO jump. It is a High Altitude, Low Opening jump. I had someone else's memories… and information. Someone here, someone alive, I think. We where all part of the same whole during… during it." He gestured with his hands. "And I think we carried parts of people's memories with us."

"He was inserting over Syria. He was supposed to kill someone, a general or something." Asuka screwed up her face, trying to coax the memory out.

"Exactly. He did in fact do just that. Then he exfiltrated through Israel a few days later. The thing that scares me is, does everyone know all of these things? Or just a few? Or just us?"

Asuka had no answers for him. Only conjecture, and that was of little use. She shrugged and gave him a noncommittal look. "Maybe mention it to Dr Soerenson?", then followed that up with an invite to their walkthrough of the facility.

"Yeah, I… I guess so. I am not much use out here today. I have not gotten much done today." Asuka looked at him a little angrily at first, but softened soon enough. Shinji had sort of fell into the city planner, administrator job that he had. He didn't like it very much, she could tell. People often challenged his authority, and he had a hard time making decisions. Really, he was afraid of making bad choices, or choosing something that someone would not like.

"It's OK, Shinji. I think you are doing a great job. You can't please everyone, but you are making a good run for it. Come on, let's eat something. Then let's explore the base. Maybe that will help."

Later at NERV, they assembled the volunteers. It was a bunch that spread across all gender, racial, ethnic backgrounds, and ages. A total of 20 showed up, and they where quickly divided into five groups of four. Shinji, Asuka, Kensuke, and Genie would be at Central Dogma helping to coordinate the exploration. Will was down at the powerplant not far away. He stayed well away from the room with Rei and Kaoru in it though.

"OK, this is nothing in depth. We just want to get a quick and dirty idea of everything this place offers, and what it's… liabilities are." She had been about to say "dirty secrets" but thought better of it. "If you find anything particularly interesting, please bring it to our attention and we can make note of it. Also, many of the stand alone workstations will likely be on. At least one person in each group has a laptop, so be sure to pull anything of importance off of them if you find something. Any questions?"

One man up front raised his hand a little. "Are we expecting to find anything dangerous in here?"

"No. We believe everything to be benign. There were likely experiments done on animals at some portion of the facility, so if you do happen onto a rabid rat, there are weapon lockers positioned throughout the facility with more than enough firepower to bring the roof down on top of you. Anything else? Alright, I have 1:40. Meet back here at 4:30. That gives us just under 3 hours. You all have your areas, so, let's get to it."

For the first two hours, everything was fairly quiet. Not much to report throughout the facility. A few minor projects here and there that would likely be of little use to them. One was a solidifying liquid spray that had a strong scratch resistance, there where computer related projects including superconductors, gel-based data storage, and micro-cooling systems.

The medical portion of the base offered up huge amounts of medical supplies. There were some projects going on there, mostly dealing with nervous system repair and strengthening. One team reported in that they had found some kind of augmentative project for increasing dendrite to axon connections ten fold. Otherwise the hospital was empty.

Many of the volunteers complained about the great number of pools of dried yellow residue that marked the spot where someone had "died". So many people in here, all in one place.

The armory was a different story. Weapons of all types from handguns to rifles, explosives, mortars, rockets, it was all here, and in great quantities. It made Shinji a little sad that such things where so easy to find still. Man would never survive if he did not learn from his mistakes. With weapons such as these, it would be very easy for a community of this size to totally wipe themselves out. He made a note to find some way to destroy most of it. Asuka saw it over his shoulder and nodded absently to herself.

Storage 14 (Cage 1) confirmed their worst fears however. Much of the documentation for the Evangelion was written for its domestic use, but someone had not intended for it to be used in such a way. It had been fitted for combat, and judging from the schematics and notes, not long before Third Impact. Its dull surface had even had a camouflage pattern applied to it. A useless idea since the Eva was so large it was hard to imagine anyone missing it even from a mile or more away.

When they heard about it over the radio, Shinji and Asuka raced to the location, as did the other teams. This changed a few things. Maybe not a lot, but it changed how tight security would have to be at this place. They could not have just anyone getting in that thing. Considering what they knew and suspected about the combat forms, there was too much risk for someone untrained in even the Evangelion basics to get into one. Who knew what kind of tricks this thing had… assuming it was in fact operational. The MAGI had said it was supposed to be 80 complete, but it, and presumably it's mate in the adjoining Storage 15 (Cage 2) looked finished.

Shinji sighed heavily as he looked into the deep black unlit eyes. He had sincerely hoped that he would never see such a thing again. The large green combat form stared back at him; the tilt of the eye sockets made it look like it hated him. This could only lead to problems.

Alright. That is it for this installment. I am sorry that it took me so long to finish it. I guess I just found other things to do while I am over here. Like playing multiplayer HALO2 over LAN. Anyhow, we will be leaving Afghanistan soon, so maybe that will allow me to start working on this a little more seriously again.

For those of you wondering, there is no overarching storyline. I write from the top of my head and it goes where it does. Perhaps someday I will really create a story, but I am just writing to expel the inner demons and work on my writing style.

On another note, due to lack of volume of suggestions, I will go ahead and decide on a name for the city/community/whatever. Also, when you review, please tell me what you think, other than "It's great!" Characters are not believable, grammar is bad, spelling needs work, your sentence structure sucks, of course they do not have to be negatives…


	7. Human Nature

Human Nature

A.I. Incorporation Project

**Day 103**

A red letter day to say the least. It seems that earlier estimates on digitization times where grossly overstated. The Unit (I still hesitate to refer to it as a soul) was successfully incorporated last night, and the MAGI have been processing the new data ever since.

This morning we are going to be enabling the personality front end. There has been some pretty wild conjecture about what exactly it will be. I will reserve my judgment until the time comes though. Too many times have the scientific community been chided in retrospect for their expectations not coming to be.

**Day 103a**

The interface was revealed today at 1437 hours. It is a head and shoulders representation of the First Child Unit that we received for this project. Incidentally, why so much secrecy on Seele's account? I had expected to get orders from NERV HQ, but all we got were logistic forms from Seele's group.

Either way, we were surprised to find that the personality front end was much more than a morality or values based routine. Some level of consciousness has been transferred as well. The computer seems to be self aware, and is capable of engaging in conversation, although I will admit that the alternate personalities are somewhat unsettling. Especially Balthasar. Before, the computer was just taciturn, now it is verging on terse and unagreeable.

Caspar and Melchior, however are pleasant for their parts. I don't know how we are going to incorporate this personality interface into our operations.

**Day 137**

What with the rumblings from Seele of late, I had not expected any serious tests to be conducted, but it looks like a security related exercise will be initiated tomorrow morning, to attempt a 'hack' of the main MAGI system at Tokyo-3. I suppose this is to be expected. There have never been any tests of it's security against a computer of it's own power.

We are set to act as backup if the German facility, who is leading the 'attack' experiences any problems. The plan as it stands now is to exploit a perceived hole in the primary logical construct, that we believe to still be open.

**Day 138**

What have we done? It is apparent to me now that this was no exercise, but that the attack was in earnest. Our access to the satellite imaging systems allowed us to view Tokyo-3 from space. It has been completely obliterated.

Initially we watched the exercise raptly. It looked like we were going to succeed. But then something happened. Some security defense was emplaced that stopped the attack cold. Our MAGI was brought online to help advance, and it appears that some data was transferred from Melchior -24 to Melchior-1. Tokyo-3 had not only resisted the combined invasion, but has executed one of it's own. It is still unclear what was copied.

It doesn't really matter much anyhow. If what we are seeing is correct, there is little…

Dr. Soerenson sat in her plush chair writing notes in red ink. The yellow pad of paper was almost gone, but there were more in the closet in the hallway. She supposed that the material status of this community was pretty good all things considered. They had supplies that would last them for quite some time (with the exception of some foodstuffs) and there were manufacturing facilities to be had where they could make many of the things they needed. That was not the matter currently weighing on her mind though.

"How often would you say this happens, Shinji?"

"I don't know, at least two or three times a day." Shinji looked at Asuka and she nodded. "Especially when meeting someone new. It's like I am remembering them through their own eyes."

"Like you are privy to their memories?" Lisa had never heard anything like this. Although with the things she had seen in the last few days, anything was possible at this point. Giant robots, cyborgs really she guessed, soul transfer, artificial intelligence, cloning, where does it end? Clairvoyance, now there was a new twist. Although if the prevailing thought was true, then it was not so far fetched. Most of the community believed in some fashion or another that they had experienced a merging of minds, but more than that, they had merged themselves with others. Someone a while back had heard Shinji call it Third Impact, and she guessed that was as good a name as any, although it did not quite do justice to the enormity of the events.

"More like I am them in their memories. Does that make sense?"

Dr. Soerenson sat for a moment, thinking about this. Shinji and Asuka seemed to experience this much more than Will who is the only other person to speak of it. He seemed to be a very strongly minded person, like he had been mentally grooming for years. Why would Shinji and Asuka be affected by this also? It must have something to do with their status as pilots.

"When you were in one of the Evas, you've said that you mentally connected to it, right?" She waited for a nod. "So, what if the Eva was a conduit of sorts, an amplifier maybe. It stands to reason that your experiences in them would have altered your minds, and this may be a culmination of that. During the Third Impact even, your minds mixed with millions of others. It could very well be that others have a similar, but much more subconscious thing happening to them. They don't even know it."

Shinji furrowed his eyebrows and thought on this, absorbing it.

"Keep in mind, this is only conjecture. We're throwing around abstracts of ideas that have never been fully explored or explained. Souls, memories, blending minds and everything." She had a somewhat worried look, as if to say "just take everything we say here with a grain of salt".

"I guess I understand. We only know what we experience, and beyond that, it's out of our hands, isn't it?", Asuka ventured.

Later after they left Lisa's office, they stopped by the Kitchen for a bite to eat. Construction was going along fine on the New Kitchen, and Hadased was still using the old one for his operation. It was getting pretty tight in there though. He had temporary food prep tables setup in the regular eating area in the hours before and after each meal. So many people, so many mouths. Shinji wondered how in the world he coordinated it sometimes.

Hadased came running out of the kitchen and took a kid, could not have been older than about 13, by the shoulders. "Please, please tell me you found some potatoes! We don't have enough for the mashed potatoes and fried ones."

The kid recovered from the initial shock and nodded, explaining that they had gotten a couple of truck loads of them from the facility that morning. A relieved Hadased started to head back to the kitchen after thanking the boy, but then noticed Shinji and Asuka.

"Ah! Shinji, Asuka, to what do I owe the honor of your late morning visit?", he asked, heading for their seats.

"Actually, we thought we might stop by and see how things were going, and take it easy for a while. I don't have many meetings today, and with the computers up and running, the management of many of the infrastructural facilities are pretty well taken care of, so Asuka is joining me." Shinji smiled at him, and indicated a seat.

"I tell you, Shinji, this is really something, here. How many people are living here now? Six thousand?" Hadased inquired.

Shinji nodded.

"Never have I cooked for so many. I told you that I had a restaurant in Bahrain, right? I moved there from my home in Afghanistan in the early 1990's. That is just after the Taliban came into widespread power there." He looked at the two teens and smiled. "Many people that I talk to tell me that their homes are the most beautiful. I humor them and don't say much about it because deep down we all think that our homes are the best. I miss my home, and I know now, that I will never see it again. I am OK with that, though. I have found a place that is tolerant, the people are friendly, there are social groups who really socialize, and there are only very minor violent incidents." He sighed. His home had seen war for more than 10 years before he left, and another twelve years afterwards. So many outside influences coming into his country telling them how to live, how to believe. Not so with this place. They were all outsiders here. And they all belonged.

"You know, we have satellite recon photos of the whole world, I can bring you something if you like. It won't be like going there, and I imagine it won't do it any justice, but it'll be something, right." Shinji looked to Asuka who nodded. She would task the MAGI with it when she got a chance.

Hadased smiled. "Thank you, my friend. That would be nice I think. In the meantime, do you think you could help me out on something else? I am told that there was an accounting of the food you found in the storehouses inside the base? I have not yet seen a list of them. It would be nice to know so that I don't overuse anything."

"Actually, I can do you one better than that. I have the inventories here with me, and I have some of the smaller amounts of items separated so you won't have to search." Asuka dug in her bag for a couple of seconds, producing a packet of perhaps 15 pages, with text printed on both sides, which she handed to Hadased.

Thumbing through it he saw some items were stored in huge amounts while other items where in fairly short supply. Sugar 15,000 kilograms, wheat 29,000 kilograms, flash frozen beef 14,000 kilograms, the list continued with different meats, fruits vegetables, and staples. Many of the spices and flavorings where almost nonexistent, however. Coriander, marjoram, bay leaves, sesame seeds, mint, parsley, all were kept in a few small containers each. Undoubtedly, the commissary on base was not in the business of cooking anything that tasted good, just bland and fairly nutritious food.

Reading his look of frustration, Shinji added that they might be able to raid the houses around town for some of those spices. With a concentrated effort, the ought to be able to come up with enough to keep going for a while.

"Why was there so much food in there anyway? Didn't you tell me there were only a few hundred employees?", Hadased asked.

"We were thinking maybe they were prepared for a lockdown scenario where they could not leave the base for an extended period. Who knows? This Kitchen was not even intended to feed a few hundred people for an extended period of time, much less the thousands we currently are feeding. The commissary on base is not even this big, and would only feed the staff for lunch and maybe dinner, so I don't think it was for that really. Either way, we have some food, but based on projections, we are going to start running out if we don't start growing stuff." Shinji had worried over that thought for a while. They had loads of people now, and would be able to grow nearly anything (he figured), but the problem was motivating people to do it. They had land, they had water; they just needed to get to it.

"Shinji is going to propose setting aside some of the land down the road from the housing area as farm and ranch land. Of course we are going to have to get crews to go round up stock to put on the ranches, but, first things first I guess." She smiled, which Shinji found was happening more and more nowadays. He had become very accustomed to seeing it, and it never got old.

A rapid series of clangs reverberated out of the kitchen door and Hadased bid them a short farewell and hurried back to his task with hands on head bracing for a catastrophe on the floor.

"Looks like he has his hands full, but I think it's all gonna be alright.", Asuka mused. She and Shinji stood and headed for the door. Their house was not far away, and a late morning siesta sounded like a great idea. They walked along the sidewalks, passing people who were busying themselves with their tasks.

Shinji had found that people seemed much happier here than any place he had previously lived. They were proud to be doing what they did. They were contributing to something instead of working hard to just get by. The construction people built houses for the people who came in every day, thus allowing those people to live and work and make a new facet of their life a possibility. The power plant people gave electricity and light and cooling to the town allowing them a relaxing and entertaining time to unwind. The school teachers where passing on knowledge to a younger generation ensuring they will grow up avoiding the mistakes of the current one.

In his heart he knew that this system would not last forever. This is a communist dream, and sooner or later people will fall into apathy because they will find that there is no return for extra work. How do you get a farmer to grow more vegetables if there is no tangible incentive to do so? You set quotas which equates to threats. You have to grow this much, or else…

That didn't sit well with him. Or else… That produced results, but it also embittered people. And embittered people have a way of revolting and.. What the heck is with that train of thought? Come on, Shinji. They are not going to riot and kill you. We are a community, not a government. He was just a de facto administrator anyhow. There had not been any elections or appointments or power struggles. It was just sort of accepted. Then a weird thought occurred to him. What if this is somehow related to the memories thing?

A man was standing on the corner wiping his greasy hands on a shop towel. He was listening intently to the motor of a car sitting just next to the sidewalk. He smiled at them as they neared.

"Boy, they don't make 'em like that anymore, do they? Actually, I guess they don't make 'em at all, but you know what I mean.", he said, putting the rag away. "The Davis family, just down that way, this is their car, they just don't know it yet."

A few pleasantries and a little small talk and they continued on. See there? He seems to like what he is doing. He's making a difference. He is being a hero. He is providing for everyone, instead of just himself. And that allows everyone else to provide better for him.

The heat flowing off of the almost blindingly white concrete made wavy work of all of the straight lines within view. It was also stifling. The house was just up ahead and was a welcome site, what with the knowledge of the central air system inside. That is one place that man had finally done something right. With the invention of plasmic heat exchange, heating and cooling where achieved at much higher efficiencies while not putting off any discernable ecologic impact. The substances used where in plasma state at room temperature, allowing for very efficient transfers of heat, and when exposed to light would break down into their base elements within minutes, none of which were harmful.

"Man, I am telling you, I am not ready for this late nights early mornings thing." Shinji muttered as they stepped through to the air conditioned sanctuary of their home. The house was deserted save for them, a fact that Asuka thought about pointing out with a comment about making all the noise they wanted. Unfortunately for her, she saw the way Shinji held his shoulders and figured there would not be any "fooling around" (she loved calling it that) during this break.

They lay there talking quietly for a while. Asuka had started telling Shinji more about herself recently. She seemed to feel that it helped the relationship if he knew who she was before he met her. Some of her stories were funny. Some of them, many of them, were sad for Shinji. She was an outcast even in Germany. Despite appearances, most kids did not like her. The college students at the Polytechnic did not like her either. About the only person who did really seem to take to her was her step mother. Shinji occasionally wanted to explain that things were quite similar for him, but he did not want to interrupt her, and he figured she more than likely already knew it.

The Golden days of Our Town. Maybe that is what they will call these times in the future. No one had submitted any good suggestions for the name of their community, so Shinji had decided on Our Town. And these did seem to be golden days, didn't they? No real conflicts, supplies in apparent abundance, people were well employed, there was community and fellowship. Perhaps he would write something for the paper to let people know how much this meant to him. To let them know what a good thing they had, and to try their best to hold on to it.

Lunch was in full swing when they arrived, and found that Kensuke and Yevgenia where just getting in line themselves. Much further up in line, Will waved back at them, and smiled. Beverly was nowhere to be seen, but that was not surprising. She often came early or late as she busied herself so that she did not know how quickly time was passing. Sometimes she missed it altogether. They occasionally had a laugh at that.

Lunch today consisted of Southwestern American and Mexican food. Lots of Spanish rice, chili, compuestas, fajitas, homemade chips and salsa, salads, just about anything you could imagine.

After a while in line talking to the people around them, they got their food and sat down with Kensuke and Yev. Will was over at another table talking to Gayle and some of the other engineers. They had started moving people to other projects after the MAGI assumed the power plant responsibilities.

"Ohm no, don't put him in charge of that. He is a jackass. Put that new guy on it, what's his name? Bill? Put him on it." Kensuke and Yev were finding people for several tasks in the facility like cleaning up the remains, and inventorying their supplies. Medical supplies had been streaming out of the place for weeks, but there was no telling how much was left. Bill, the so called new guy, had been getting ready to graduate from medical school before all this happened, and so Kensuke wanted him to head a project involving some of the equipment in the medical labs, specifically for manufacturing antibiotics and other medical drugs.

One of the problems with situations such as this is that while initially there are lots and lots of supplies, they are expended pretty quickly. With so few people it can be hard to produce the items that all of those people will need. Additionally many of the items that they enjoy could not be produced since there were just not facilities for fabrication.

Take toilet paper for example. While there are several hundred thousand rolls, once they are gone where are you going to get toilet paper? They have a paper mill, but it set up to make sheet paper. They didn't have any paper engineers so Shinji had no idea if the facility could make anything else. Car parts, gasoline, oil, hydrogen isotopes for the fusion reactor, any of a hundred other things just could not be made right now.

"I think I am going to have to talk to the MAGI one of these days soon." Shinji told Asuka, while Yevgenia was discussing who would take care of cleaning out the upper level labs. "We need to prioritize our manufacturing. Also, how many of those portable tablets are there?" He referred to some tablets that had networked connections to the computer system. They could display nearly any information one could want on it, provided it had been loaded into the MAGI.

"Looks like there were probably a hundred of them or so. Why?"

"We may want to give them to project supervisors so that if they have any questions on making any of these technologies work, they can have the information at their fingertips." Shinji looked thoughtful for a moment, then to Kensuke, "We can try it out with Bill and see how it works. He's going to be culturing penicillin or whatever right? Tell him if he has any questions, just run a search on the MAGI and see what they say. What do you think, Asuka?"

She gave him a kind of funny look then replied. "That sounds like a good idea. They are gonna have to have logins and whatnot, and I imagine we can lock out areas that they don't need to get into easily enough."

Shinji looked at his watch and sighed. "Well it is that time. I have a meeting with the water people again. They are behind schedule with the desalination plant."

Kensuke and Yevgenia said goodbye, and Asuka kissed him, a little longer than is normally appropriate in crowded places, then let him go. She noticed him smiling as he left.

The cool of night was a welcome reprieve from the day. Shinji and Asuka sat in the cool grass behind their house looking at the starts through the limbs of the oak tree that stood there. The crimson streak of blood that had once been so prominent across the sky had faded to a mere hint of its former self. The blood on the mood remained however. A reminder of their one time friend Rei.

Satellite photos of the pacific showed no trace of the huge decaying body they had seen on the beach. A number of the originals (Hadased, Kensuke, Yevgenia, Beverly, Will and others had wondered back and forth what had happened. The sheer volume of the corpse would have dictated that it would likely take decades for it to decompose enough for it to sink into the ocean, but there was no sign of it at all.

A soft breeze flowed between the houses, and carried with it the sounds of life from other parts of town. A motor, children laughing at play, a woman calling for her man to come back in, the fading of the music at the Kitchen. Asuka and Shinji had been out here for nearly an hour talking. Wondering what the future would bring them. Couples for thousands of years had done just this task. Neither broached the subject of marriage or children, but they did expect to still be together in the future. Perhaps those taboo subjects are just a bit presumptuous.

"Do you think that we can make it? Humans I mean? Can we leave behind our cultural baggage and keep from annihilating ourselves?", Shinji wondered aloud.

"I honestly don't know. I hope so. If not, then all of these people may have come back for nothing."

"No. Not for nothing. I didn't come back for nothing. I have found you, and…" He hesitated just a second. "and I love you. Regardless of how any of this ends, that is worth it."

Asuka leaned toward him and kissed him softly on the lips. She had done this with a couple of other boys, even tried it with Shinji a number of months ago, but none of that had meant what this did.

They lay there kissing for several minutes before Asuka rolled onto Shinji's chest and lay on him. He was warm, and he put his arms around her, rubbing her back with gentle up and down caresses. For a while this was all they occupied themselves with, then moving his hand up her back, he pushed up her blouse into soft red rumples that piled up ahead of his hand.

Her skin was hot and he could feel the goose-bumps under his hand. On the down ward stroke he stroked her behind, even hooking a finger into the waistband of her dress. She scooted up on him a few inches, allowing him to further explore, while at the same time, pressing her breasts into his face.

They took their time, slowly and inexorably moving toward sex, not hurrying at all. Kensuke and Yevgenia returned home while they were outside and neither of the groups noticed each other. Asuka and Shinjis love-making lasted for a while, and after they were spent, they lay there a while longer, holding each other, sweating a little and letting it evaporate in the cooling night air.

Shinji tried to tell Asuka of how happy he was, but in the end conceded that he did not have words to describe how she made him feel.

Before anyone comments on the length of time between the publishing of chapters 5 and 6, let me tell you… I know. Since chapter 5 I have returned from Afghanistan, seen my first child born, left the Army, moved twice, had two really good jobs, and nearly completed a degree in computer science.

I have been busy, and have not had much time to devote to things I enjoy. I used to like playing video games, I like to read fiction, I like to watch anime, I like to camp and climb and ski. Unfortunately nowadays I get up at about 6 AM and get home from school at 10:30 PM three days a week. Let this be a lesson to any of you who are thinking of putting college off. If you have the financial means of doing it now, absolutely do it. Do not put it off! It gets exponentially more difficult the longer you put it off because every year you have just that much more responsibility.

Anyhow, I have a couple of weeks during the winter when I am not at school and this Christmas I have an effective 5 day weekend (read: no work). So I decided to go back and revise a few things in previous chapters make some spelling and readability edits and write a little bit more. I am trying to figure out what I want as the main source of conflict in this one and I think I have thought of it.

I wrote a little bit of lime into the end of this one as a means of saying I am sorry for those readers who put me on their watch list and then never heard back. I apologize for that. I will say that the aforementioned lime is about as risqué as I get in my writing. I am a romantic, not a romantic novelist. I have never felt right about describing the acts in detail. If I tried I imagine I would try to describe them too much, so lets just leave most of it to your imagination, shall we?

Hopefully I will get a chance to write at least one more chapter before returning to the drudgery of school (I enjoy my job). Let me know how you like the above chapter and I will let you in on a little more of the goings on in this incarnation of Asuka and Shinji's world.

Chewie


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